


Out of Place

by CoffeeFueledAuthor



Category: Inside Out (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-04-19 18:20:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 43
Words: 92,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4756400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoffeeFueledAuthor/pseuds/CoffeeFueledAuthor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young girl feels like her mind has been numbed, and she begins to blame it on the mysterious creatures appearing around the house.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Strange New Feelings

**Author's Note:**

> After horrible errors and real scares, I wanted to post this here where I believe it will be safe from random site crashes. I have quite a bit of catching up to do, but I will be spacing it out a bit. I'm not about to post 19 chapters at once. But feel free to let me know what you think, if this is your first time reading this tale. Thanks, and enjoy!

Chapter 1: Strange New Feelings

She could tell the instant it happened. In a split second, she knew something was horribly wrong. She felt numb. It felt like nothing in the world mattered to her anymore. She was scared, but probably not as scared as she should have been. She was frustrated, but the old her would've been more so. Her feelings weren't as strong. It was almost like they were barely there. And the poor girl could tell immediately when the change occurred. But with her sudden dulled feelings came apathy. She knew something was wrong, but did nothing in reaction. She simply resigned herself to the new problem. This was just how she was now.

The old her would probably have contacted her parents immediately to express concern. But this new her couldn't bring herself to care enough. Her parents, miles away on a two week long trip, would be left in the dark, completely unaware of the sudden and severe change in their daughters mental status.

The old her probably also would have told her cousin, asking for her advice. After all, she was the one who the parents had put in charge of the house and its inhabitant. But she continued her work day with no knowledge of any problems as her younger cousin decided against even a simple phone call.

The young girl lifted her head from the sofa pillow and let out a low sigh. Her semi glazed eyes glanced at the glowing numbers below the tv. It was only 2:30. Her cousin wouldn't return to the house for another two hours at least. Even though she had homework to do and chores to complete, the girl could only muster up enough energy and care to sit up and turn on the tv across the room. For all she knew, her mind was falling to pieces. But there was no way she could bring herself to act on the problem.

Minutes quickly began to slip away. A whole hour passed without the girl even noticing. Her gaze was fixated on the television screen, following the shapes and colors that danced across the glass, but she wasn't really watching. Her eyes were, but her mind wasn't. She basically laid there motionless for the entire hour, her thoughts like tv static.

But as the glowing numbers flipped to read 3:34, she finally felt something. It was the dulled feeling of empty stomach. The girl reacted to the only thought in her mind, and slowly stood up in search of sustainance.

A quick rifling through the cupboards later, the girl returned to the couch. But before she could sit and resume her blank staring, she heard something. A scratch, a skitter, a scurry. Something was quickly running on small feet across the carpet. Listening carefully, it sounded like a creature was hidden under the ottoman.

The girls mind instantly went to mice. The house had had a problem with the small rodents in the past. This tiny skittering of feet was most likely their return. She only barely reacted with a slight curl of her face into a look of minor disgust. To be sure, she swiftly kicked the black ottomaN in an attempt to scare the being out from beneath it.

From the shadow under the furniture bolted a tiny figure, emitting what sounded like a hushed squeak. It zoomed at an incredible speed, abandoning its previous hiding place in search of safety beneath the couch. The girl felt a muffled feeling of fear and took a half step back. Though the being was too quick to tell what it was, she could tell what it wasn't, and it wasn't a mouse. This thing wasn't a rodent of any kind. In fact, if she wasn't mistaken, this tiny creature had zipped by running on only two legs. It was almost humorous, but it sort of looked like some very small person...

Before her dulled mind could process what was happening, the figure escaped to the darkness beneath the couch and disappeared. She once more listened for the quiet sound of scratching, but the creature stayed utterly silent. She kicked the side of the couch, but the being didn't budge. An idea slowly formed in the girls head, and she swooped back into the kitchen for the flashlight beneath the sink. Returning to the living room, she dropped to her knees in front of the couch and shined the bright light beneath the seat. The illumination revealed a pencil, a quarter, and a die from a board game she had lost the week before, but no creatures or animal of any kind.

She stood up and sighed. A tiny person? Had she really seen that? Or was her sluggish brain somehow managing to play tricks on her?

The girl made her way back to kitchen to return the flashlight, but not before listening once more for the scratching.


	2. The Trap

Chapter 2: The Trap

"I'm sure it was nothing. Maybe you dozed off on the couch for a second. I often see weird things when I'm tired. It was probably a bug or a mouse if anything."

Her cousin had responded exactly as she had expected. The girl knew no one would believe her about seeing a small person running across the carpet. She didn't even know if she believed herself. Her cousins explanation that she had given over dinner seemed to be the most logical answer.

But still, as she sat on the couch in the room where it all happened, she couldn't help but wonder if she really did see it.

Her cousin retreated upstairs shortly after dinner. She had taken up residence in the parents bedroom. After a long day of work, and after making sure her young cousin was fed and satisfied for the night, she would lay in the queen size bed and watch the tv that sat perched atop the dresser. Her watching would be often interrupted by quick texting breaks as her phone constantly buzzed with new messages.

Normally, the young girl would've been bothered by her cousins baby sitting style. She didn't like that she hid herself away at the end of the day, leaving her with no one to talk to. She often complained that she might as well have been left without a sitter. But today she didn't care. She could only think about the weird incident that had happened earlier that afternoon.

She also had told her cousin about how she was feeling over dinner, but that was just as quickly dismissed. "I get that, too." Her cousin nodded. "Some days you just don't feel quite right. It'll pass. I'm sure you just miss your mom and dad."

She wasn't so sure that was it, but her numb state didn't make her feel much like arguing. Her angry thoughts lay dormant, so she accepted her elders reasoning.

The girl sighed and continued staring at the ceiling. She was so wrapped up in her problems that she hadn't even bothered to turn on the tv. She laid there for what could've been hours trying in vain to figure out what had happened to her and what she had seen earlier.

Fatigue began to hit her, and she finally decided to end her thoughts for the day. She rolled over to glance at the clock before retiring to her bedroom. The digital clock just flipped to 11.

Just as it did, a ripple appeared from under the tv stand. A ring of color rippled across the carpet, starting bright and fading as it grew larger and larger and spread farther and farther. As it began to cross into the dining room, it had faded completely. As quickly as it had come, all signs of the ring had disappeared.

She blinked.

"I'm just tired," she told herself.

**********************************

"I'm just tired. I'm just tired. I'm just tired. I'm just..."

The girl repeated the sentence over and over again in her head. Her nails dug into the arm of the couch and a bead of sweat rolled down her face. No matter how many times she told herself she was just tired, she couldn't convince herself. She knew what she was hearing. It was that same scratching scritching sound she had heard the day before.

She glared at her watch. It was barely noon. She wished her cousin was home so she could prove the sound was real. But she wouldn't be home for another four or five hours. The sound would no doubt stop long before then.

She listened for it again. It was quiet, but still there. A tiny scratching sound coming from under the tv stand. She was sure it was there. She wasn't tired, she was hearing it. And she was sure it was that same creature.

She couldn't take it any longer. Though her other feelings were muffled, her curiosity still burned strong. She had to see it again. She had to know what it really was. She had to catch it.

As quietly as she could, she stood up from the couch and tiptoed into the kitchen. She opened the cupboard and grabbed the biggest plastic cup she could find. It was translucent too, perfect for viewing the animal after she had caught it. And she could keep it in there until her cousin could see it too. Then she would prove it wasn't fatigue.

With her trap in hand, she returned to the living room, taking her place just in front of the tv. She stopped and listened again. Sure enough, the scratching sound continued. This was it. She took a deep breath and held the cup tightly in both hands. It was time to catch the small person.

With all her might, she kicked the side of the wooden tv stand. The sound was loud and the whole stand shook, but as she watched the shadow beneath with bright eyes, she didn't see anything. She waited, holding perfectly still, but nothing ever emerged. The scratching had ceased. Whatever was beneath the stand wasn't coming out. But she couldn't give up. She had come this far, she had to find out what it was.

She dropped the plastic cup to the floor and pressed up against the tv stand side with both hands. Using every last ounce of strength, she began to push the heavy object. It took a lot of effort, but the stand began to scrape across the carpet, slowly revealing more of the floor beneath. The more she could see, the more invigorated she became and the harder she pushed. The scratching noise returned, more frantic now, as the creature attempted to follow the moving shadow. Finally, when she had pushed the tv stand halfway to the kitchen, the creature emerged.

It appeared from the front of the stand. Just as quick as before, it darted across the carpet and ran for the darkness beneath the couch. But the girl was determined. Even in her dulled state, she reacted quickly, grabbing blindly for her plastic cup. As fast as she could, she slammed the cup at the tiny figure on the ground.

She was fast, but the thing was faster. With a quick swerve, it completely dodged the plastic trap and continued skittering to the shadow. Without thinking, and with her left hand still holding the cup firmly to the ground, the girl launched her right hand in front of her and slammed it to the ground.

She couldn't believe it. She did it. She could feel the tiny creature struggling beneath her bare hand. She caught it.

Catching her breath, she analyzed the situation. She prayed it wasn't a bug. She hadn't actually meant to touch it with a bare hand. After all, she didn't know if it possessed the ability to sting or bite. But it didn't feel like a bug. In fact, the small thing writhing rapidly beneath her fingers almost felt like cloth. Tiny tiny cloth.

It was squeaking too. And she could hear it breathing. It gasped and squeaked and tried its hardest to get away. But she wouldn't let it go. She had to see what it was, even with her bare hand.

Keeping her hand to the floor, she pinched her index finger to her thumb, trapping a pinch of the creature in her fingers. When she was sure the grip on it was secure, she began to slowly lift it to the air. She could finally see what this elusive being was.

Its squirming began to subside as it moved further and further from the ground. It tensed itself into a tight ball as she brought it just in front of her face. Though still feeling off and muffled, she mustered a small gasp.

It was a tiny person. She was right.


	3. Attempt at Communications

Chapter 3: Attempt at Communications

The girl stared unblinking at the creature she had just caught. It was hard to believe her eyes, even though she was looking right at it. It was only about two and a half inches tall, though her estimate may have been off, seeing as how it had crumpled itself into a tiny ball. It's long slender arms covered its head and face beneath soft looking lavender hands. It was complete with a tiny outfit; a long sleeve button up shirt and a hounds-tooth sweater vest topped its long torso, with a pair of blue slacks covering its short legs.

She could hear it. It was whimpering softly in a very human like voice. Its whole body shook violently, the vibrations resonating through her fingers. She felt a half hearted feeling of sadness, pity for the tiny creature she had just caught. But at the same time, and much stronger, she felt confused. What was it? Where did it come from? What was it doing here? What should she do with it? Should she call someone?

Her mind racing with questions, she could only bring herself to say one thing.

"What!?" She shouted to no one in particular, placing her one free hand on top of her head in shock.

"Please..." She heard it cry as it pulled its body tighter. "Please..."

The surprises kept coming.

"Wait! You talk?" She half yelled. "Who are you? What are you? Where did you come from? Why are you here?"

The tiny creature couldn't have curled in on itself any harder. It shook and shivered and began to sob into its gently glowing hands.

"Please. Please don't hurt me." It blubbered.

She couldn't believe it. She had caught a tiny person, and now she was communicating with it. She almost slapped herself in the face to check if she was awake. But she knew she was conscious. This was all really happening. She stared hard at the shaking figure as its body heaved rhythmically from its sobs. Though feeling confused and scared and perhaps even a dulled bit of anger, she also felt increasingly sorry for the poor creature. She pictured herself being caught by a giant, and she guessed she would've reacted the same way.

"I-I'm not gonna hurt you." Her excitement made her stutter. "But you have to tell me whats going on."

"I'm sorry." Its breathing became labored as its crying intensified. "I'm... I'm so sorry. Please. Just don't... Don't hurt me."

Her questions going unanswered, her dulled anger began to build.

She shook the tiny figure once for emphasis, shouting, "Why are you here?"

The tiny creature yelped and violently shook. "PLEASE." It was yelling, but its small size made its voice small as well. "DON'T HURT ME. PLEASE." Its labored breathing picked up. It sounded like it was going into a complete panic.

Frustration would get her no where. She took a deep breath, relaxed, and spoke far quieter. "It's okay. I'm sorry. I just..." She felt silly for saying it. "I just have never seen a tiny person before."

The calm and quiet voice she had used finally put the tiny figure more at ease. It's shaking decreased into a light shiver, and its tensed muscles that she could feel through the pinched fabric of its sweater vest began to relax. Its legs uncurled and dangled beneath it, and it finally brought its hands from its face.

Though the rest of it looked human, the face did not. Its tall, almost cylindrical shaped head was topped in two huge glassy eyes, slightly off kilter with light gray irises. Thick fuzzy eyebrows hung in space above its eyes, completing its insanely worried expression. A long nose jutted out like a Japanese goblin, and a single curled hair-like appendage hung from the back of its head. Its skin didn't look like skin, but rather a collection of beady lavender specs that clumped together to form itself. Its giant eyes fixed on her own and its lip began to quiver.

"What are you?" She asked again, using the calmer voice. She spoke slowly and quietly to avoid scaring it back into its tight ball again.

Its eyes nervously scanned her face and its antenna like structure drooped all the way down until it hung completely straight. It looked as if it was about to resume crying any second.

"Please." She prodded, still trying to keep the strange looking tiny person calm. "Just tell me what you are."

The figure brushed an eye with its hand and let out a fluttering sigh. "I'm... I'm F-fear." It muttered silently.

"You're afraid?" She asked, a little annoyed that he had dodged the question but trying so hard to get more answers out of it.

"N-no." It began to pull its legs in again. "You asked me what... What I was, And I.. told you. I am Fear."

"Fear? Like, that's your name?"

"Well..." It's voice was so quiet, it was a near whisper. It wrapped its long gangly arms around its knees and hugged its legs to its chest. "Yes. And no. Kind of? I don't..." Its voice trailed off into silence.

The girl sighed. The creatures frazzled nerves were making talking to it difficult. If she wasn't so numb, she probably would've screamed in frustration by now. But she kept as calm as possible. First, answers. Then she would figure out what to do with it.

"So what is your name?" She asked finally. "What do people call you?"

"Fear." It stated quietly. "That... That or Riley. Riley Anderson"

The sudden mention of the girls name brought muffled chaos to her hushed mind. What was this... tiny purple person doing running around in her house with her name? How did it even know her name? Surely it must've heard it one night while hiding beneath the living room furniture. But how dare it claim the name as its own.

"That's MY name!" She shouted, rocking the little creature back and forth in her fingers.

The sudden raised voice startled the tiny thing, and in an instant it had curled in on itself again in a tiny tight ball. The shivers once again became violent shaking, and she could hear it begin to cry in terror once more.

"I know!" It shouted through its gasps and tears. "We both are- we're both Riley! We're the s-same!"

"THE SAME!?" She was screaming now, more in confusion than in rage. "HOW ARE WE THE SAME!?"

"I'M SORRY. I'M SO SORRY." It sobbed frantically. "PLEASE DON'T YELL AT ME. DON'T HURT ME. PLEASE DON'T-" Its screaming trailed off into loud, uncontrollable sobbing.

It was no use. She had worked it into a frenzy. It had become terribly clear that the only way to communicate with the creature was to stay calm. But Riley's mind was still a muddled mess. She just couldn't stay calm at the mention of her own name by this alien species.

She realized she had tensed all of her muscles, so she forced them to relax, lowering her shoulders and the creature in hand. She realized her breathing had quickened, so she took some slow breaths to calm herself. The creature continued to cry insanely, though the sobs were slowly decreasing in volume. It was strange. Though she had been having trouble feeling things recently, she felt like simply by holding this creature, aptly named Fear, that she herself could feel her own fear stronger. Still not as strong as she used to, but far better than her other muted emotions. But she had to control her nerves if she was to stay calm enough to coax more info out of the tiny creature. Or perhaps, she thought, it was time to enlist some help.

"Please." She said at last. "Please don't cry. I didn't mean to yell. Listen, I'll call the authorities, and we can figure out what to do with-"

"NO." The tiny person shouted, suddenly uncurling with his arms spread wide. "You can't! They'll take me away! Then you'll never be fixed! Please! Please don't call them!"

One word stood out in the creatures babbling. "Fixed?" She asked.

"You... You haven't been feeling yourself recently... have you?"

Riley's eyes widened. How could he have known? She shook her head, he must've overheard the conversation over dinner. But the things this creature knew that he shouldn't of were piling up. Maybe he really did know what was wrong. Maybe he was the key to figuring things out. Calling the authorities, her numb mind decided, could wait. After all, it wasn't like this tiny frightened person posed any threat to anyone. At least, she didn't think it did.

"Please." The figure said, breaking the girls thoughts. "Just... Just put me down. I can explain everything."

Riley stared into the creatures eyes with a look of trepidation. She contemplated it. Could he really be trusted? In his eyes, she saw an innocent, frightened soul. From what she saw, there was nothing in him that meant any harm to anyone. He shivered and pet his own hands nervously. She didn't know why, but she felt some spiritual connection within the figures glassy eyes. Like she was looking into the gaze of an old friend.

Finally, she made up her mind and chose to trust the lavender person. She nodded, then slowly lowered his figure to the floor. He watched the approaching carpet with anticipation, reaching his shiny black shoes out to meet it once he was low enough. She released the tiny bit of fabric she had pinched in her fingers, then stood up, towering over the very small thing.

In an instant, he took off. He bolted at top speed in the opposite direction. Before Riley could utter a single sound, he had returned to the shadow beneath the couch and disappeared from sight.

It took her only a few seconds to break away from the feeling of shock and betrayal before she leapt forward onto her knees and reached her arm under the love seat. She swiped her hand back and forth in the blackness, but didn't feel the fabric of the tiny persons clothes. She ran to the kitchen, retrieved the flashlight, and returned in an instant, but the light only revealed the junk she had spotted down there the night before. Just like last time, he had vanished without a trace.

Riley stood and kicked the side of the couch. "You lied!" She shouted, feeling more hurt than anything. "You said you'd explain!"

She listened for a response but heard nothing. She sighed, letting the heavy flashlight drop from her limp fingers to the floor with a thud. She could call the authorities now, she thought. She could get back at the strange man for betraying her. But she still decided against it. It was right. If they found him, they would take him away for good. But she wanted to learn more about him before he let him go. Curiosity was still her strongest emotion, outweighing all others, perhaps even her own common sense.

She picked the flashlight and the cup off of the floor and returned to the kitchen. Next time she caught it, she wouldn't let it go.


	4. Following the Color

Riley felt like she was losing it.

It had been two days since she had caught that strange small man. Two days since her trusting personality had cost her the creatures capture. Two days since it had disappeared in the shadows without a trace.

And since then, she'd found no signs of it. She never once heard the scratching sound again, though she listened near every hour for it. She never saw its shadow sprint across the carpet. It was like it had never existed. Riley began to wonder if the incident had even happened at all. The cousins dream argument had returned to her mind. It was seeming more and more like that was the answer, and it was mildly disappointing.

She did, however, receive one clue that may have pointed to the creatures existence. Yesterday morning, as her cousin was preparing for work, a strange look crossed her face. Riley, who had been eating cereal and watching her cousin prep for her day, looked back at her with a look of confusion.

"You know..." Her cousin started, maintaining eye contact with a random spot on the floor. "I just remembered. I saw something weird last night."

The young girls eyes had lit up at the sentence, and she dropped the spoon in the bowl with a clang. "Weird?" She asked, trying not to sound too invested.

"Yeah." Her cousin lifted her gaze to Riley and flipped her golden hair, popping a single bobby pin into the side to keep it from her eyes. "It was while I was outside."

Her cousin always made it a point to check that the gate and shed in their cramped backyard were both locked for the night, even though Riley never opened either of them. It was usually the last thing she did before she went to sleep, so Riley was generally passed out by then. None of their neighbors were night owls, so no one else was ever outside when she did her rounds. Perhaps, the young girl thought, she had seen the tiny creature.

"What happened?" Riley prodded, sitting up straight as her muscles began to tighten with dulled excitement.

"Well." Her cousin grabbed her purse from the table, stuffing her smart phone into a side pocket. "I saw a weird light. I thought it was maybe a firework or a laser thing from the neighbors yard? But it looked like this ring of colored light that began somewhere in the very corner of the yard and spread, even going a little past the fence and into the neighbors yard. Then it was gone, and I didn't see another." She flipped the purse onto one shoulder. "It was quiet, too. I didn't hear a sound."

Riley instantly remembered the colored ripple she had seen days before. It had originated under the tv stand, and was later where she found the creature had been hiding. In fact, now that she thought about it, that ring of color happened to be the same color as the purple flecks of light that made up his strange flesh. Had he been the one emitting the ripples? Why?

But, she thought, if it was him, that meant he was outside last night. Maybe that was why she hadn't seen or heard him! He'd escaped to the yard! Riley tried to act calm and collected, not letting her cousin know that she planned to hunt down the source of the rings. For some reason, she felt she had to keep it secret from her. Maybe she believed that if the cousin knew, she would call the police or something, and Riley wouldn't be able to talk to it again.

So, hiding her true muffled feelings, Riley simply mustered an "Oh. That is weird." And picked her fallen spoon up from her bowl. She pretended to be interested in eating the rest of her cereal, even though she now felt too amped up to eat.

The cousin laughed and plucked her keys from a hook on the wall. "Yeah, I thought so." She mumbled. "Well, I'm off. Remember to call me if you need anything. Bye."

Riley had produced a garbled farewell with a mouthful of cereal as her cousin left the house for the day. She sat and waited, listening for the start of her cars engine followed by the crunching of tires across the pavement and out onto the road. When she was sure that the cousin was gone, she bolted up right and dashed for the backdoor.

She had spent most of that day scouring the tiny yard, searching up and down for the little nervous man she had seen before. But there was nothing. The yard was full of browning grass, weeds, a single tree that never seemed to flower, and an old shed in need of repainting that no one ever bothered to use. There was no little creature of any kind.

Disappointed, she had spent the rest of that afternoon and evening trying to feel something. Something stronger than the weird half-emotions she had been feeling recently. She tried watching her favorite movie to make herself feel happy, but her joy was still muted. She played that game with the level she could never get past, and though she got frustrated, her anger was still weak. It was no use. She couldn't figure out or fix the problem. She needed the help of the creature.

So this morning she had spent apathetically. She needed to catch the creature to fix her problem, but he was gone. She began to think she may be doomed to this condition forever. She sighed and continued to stare at the living room ceiling. She was starting to feel worthless. These past few beautiful summer days she had spent laying on the couch accomplishing nothing. Why did this have to happen, she wondered. Especially with her parents so far away.

Just then, the clock around her wrist flipped to 11:00 exactly. From the corner of her eye, Riley saw it. A ripple of color, the same one she had seen days ago and the same one she was sure her cousin had seen, began to spread silently across the carpet. She sat up in an instant and watched the lavender ring begin to fade. Though she hadn't really been looking, she could see where the point of origin must have been. A single cardboard box sat on the floor beside the tv, a remnant from the move that had yet to be picked up. The origin, she assumed, was between the box and the wall behind it.

With a sudden burst of energy, she leapt from the couch and over to the box. Pausing just a moment as her body shivered with anticipation, she slowly reached out her hands. She didn't have a cup or a trap or anything, but she didn't care. She wasn't about to risk going to retrieve one, allowing the creature to move while her back was turned. Catching her breath, she grabbed the box and basically threw it onto the couch.

Sure enough, there he was. The little creature that she had caught days before. He was dressed in the same tiny clothes, the same soft glow radiating from his tiny figure. He was lying on his side, mouth slightly agape, eyes weakly closed beneath soft purple eyelids. He hadn't moved when the cover had been taken from him. Could it be that he was... Asleep?

Riley wasn't about to take chances. She slammed her cupped hand on the floor on top of him. But surprisingly, he didn't budge. He laid motionless beneath her hand, despite once again being captured. Riley raised an eyebrow and very slowly removed her hand. He still remained totally static, even after she had returned her arm to her side. There was no way he could sleep through that, she thought. She scanned his figure with her wide eyes. If she wasn't mistaken, he looked pale. Instead of the vibrant lavender she had seen the day before, he was a dusty purple gray. Was he... dead?

She felt her blood go cold. He couldn't be dead! He was her only hope of figuring out her problem! She reached out a frantic hand and shoved hard on his side.

The creature let out a quiet moan, almost sounding in pain, as he rolled slightly onto his back. In his new position, she could see his chest heaving. His eyes appeared to move beneath shut lids, and his hands grasped weakly at nothing.

She let out a loud sigh of relief. He was alive. But it appeared only barely. Her muted fear changed to concern and pity. Even though the thing had hid in her home and had betrayed her trust, she felt like she had to protect it. She had some sort of connection with the poor tiny person, and she wasn't going to let something happen to him.

Slowly, making sure he wouldn't react negatively, she reached her hand out one last time. Using her fingers as a scoop, she scraped the carpet beneath the figures torso and raised it into the air. The only moving she felt coming from it was its breathing, and it felt labored and exaggerated. She held him close to her eyes and looked him over, using her free hand to roll him this way and that. There was no clear sign of trauma anywhere on him. Other than his color, he appeared fine. Why, then, was he so weak?

Just then, the long nose on his face began to twitch, and his open mouth gently shut. Using his dwindling strength, he weakly raised his head, his twitching nose picking up speed. His eyes just barely opened, and he pointed his face to the girls third finger on her left hand. He suddenly became excited and agitated. He opened his tiny mouth as wide as he could, bearing his slightly crooked teeth, and he stretched himself as much as possible to bring his face as close to her finger as he could, which was still a bit of a distance. It almost looked like he pathetically planned to bite her finger.

Riley brought her left hand away from the creature and held it to her chest. As he watched it leave, he closed his eyes once again. His energy appeared to run out, and he dropped his heavy head back onto her other hand. He resumed his labored breathing.

Riley, confused and a little shocked, examined her left hand. On her third finger was an insignificant coating of orange dust. She glanced behind herself, looking at the cheese puffs she had left on the arm of the couch. She must've gotten a little of the cheese coating on her hand while she was eating them that she hadn't yet wiped off.

It was then that it dawned on her. The little person was starving.


	5. A Piece of the Puzzle

Riley, the little creature still safely cradled in one hand, raced into the kitchen at top speed. She stopped only for a moment, gently sliding his tiny frail figure onto the kitchen table, before continuing her mad search for food. She had to find something for the little person to eat, and quickly, as he was fading fast.

They had plenty of snack foods such as the cheese puffs she had been munching on earlier, but she decided against those. They were all hard and crunchy, and the small man looked too exhausted to do a whole lot of chewing. Not to mention, breaking them into pieces a good size for his tiny tiny mouth would be a chore. It was best to simply find something softer.

They had fruits. The simple sugars would probably do him good, helping to revive him from his energy-less state. But the only fruits they had were fibrous and hard to rip into small pieces, like oranges and kiwis. There had to be something better.

Just then, she recalled last nights dinner. Her cousin had made oven baked chicken with mashed potatoes on the side. Though all of the meat had been eaten, plenty of the potatoes were left over. If she wasn't mistaken, her cousin had stored it all in a Tupperware container and kept it in the fridge for a later date.

Riley tripped her way to the fridge and swung the heavy door open. Sitting in the center shelf was the grey and green container filled to the top with the mashed vegetable. It was perfect. She snatched it from the cold and placed it on the table next to the fallen creature.

She just needed something to get the food into his small mouth. A spoon seemed a little too big for his petite face. But was there really anything better? She sped to the silverware drawer and pulled it open with a squeak. Next to the forks, knives, and spoons was a box of wooden skewers. Perfect.

Skipping over the spoons, she grabbed a single skewer and finally sat herself at the table in front of the creature and the container of sustenance. She looked down at the little man. He hadn't moved an inch since she had put him there. His limbs were still sprawled out exactly as how she left them. The only thing in any sort of motion was his chest, and even that movement was slowly becoming more lazy.

"Don't worry." She mumbled, wrestling the plastic container open. "I've got something for you."

She wasn't sure that he was conscious enough to hear, but he could still smell. As soon as the container opened with a satisfying pop, his nose began to twitch again. His eyes opened into tiny slits that slowly focused on Riley as she inserted the wood skewer into the mush.

She withdrew only a smidgen of the potato, keeping in mind his awkward position and not wanting to choke him on too big of a bite. She sighed, hoping so hard that this would work, and brought the end of the stick close the creatures face.

His sniffing became rapid and his eyes widened. Once again, he lifted his heavy head and opened his mouth expectantly. Riley only needed to bring it a millimeter closer before he bit down hard on the end, sending a palpable vibration up through Riley's fingers. The sudden and forceful reaction from the creature caused her to jump, pulling the skewer back quickly. In what seemed to be no time at all, he had swallowed the bite of food, and opened his mouth, desperate for more.

He was even more ravenous than she had expected. She quickly returned the skewer to the tupperware, scooping out another tiny helping, and brought it back to the creatures face. He took this bite just as enthusiastically, swallowed, and again signaled for another with a gaping maw.

With each helping of the soft goo his liveliness seemed to return. His eyes had opened fully, his biting became more focused and less animalistic, it even appeared that his color was brightening. After around the fifteenth bite, he paused, taking the time to slowly get to his feet. Riley watched him carefully, making sure he wasn't about to try escaping again. But he merely adjusted himself, sitting back down cross legged with his long arms draped over his knees. Once he had settled, he looked back up and opened his mouth again, ready for more food.

She smiled, relaxed a little, and continued to spoon more over to him. As he continued to eat, she studied his figure again. He really was the tiny person she thought she saw. And he was alive, his needing to eat had confirmed that. He was a real, living, tiny person. She just couldn't believe it. She wondered if there were more tiny people. Had they existed for a long time? Had they avoided ever being seen until now? She thought, maybe after she had fixed her problem, she could donate him to a museum or a zoo. She could win an award for her discovery, she could go down in history books.

As she fed him yet another bite, she sighed. No, she couldn't do that to him. They would no doubt poke and prod him, experiment on him, they would probably even dissect him. She didn't want that to happen. He was so scared, so frail. He was a tiny creature who needed protection. She decided that when all was said and done, she would most likely let him go. Go back to wherever it was he came from.

Her mind, lacking in emotion but buzzing with thoughts, was interrupted by a tiny voice. The creature had paused his eating to get something off of his chest.

"Thank you..." He sighed, too embarrassed to meet her gaze and instead glancing at the table beneath him. "For helping me."

Riley stared long and hard at him. She didn't know how to react. She didn't really have a reason to help him, but she did. Part of her wanted to say 'no problem', but the other part knew that it had definitely been a problem and that she felt the creature now owed her something in return.

The creature, still looking at the surface he was sitting on, squinted his eyes. "I'm sorry." He said at last with a sniffle. "I'm sorry I ran away."

Riley stuck the skewer deep enough into the potatoes that it stood up by itself, and pushed the container aside. She leaned down a little closer to the small being, studying his face. She could tell he meant what he said. The poor thing knew only two responses to every problem; fight or flight. And with his physique, it was narrowed down to one option. He had made a mistake, and he truly felt bad about it.

"Do..." Riley began, talking quietly to the tiny man. "Do you think you can explain a few things to me now?"

The creature turned to face her again and nodded, wiping some moisture away from his eye. He took a deep breath. "What did you want to know?"

Riley couldn't help but scoff in response. "How about everything?" She spoke dryly. "Who are you? What are you? Why are you here? What is going on?"

The tiny figure sighed again, mentally preparing himself for the info. Riley realized that she may want to prepare herself, too. She was finally going to get some answers, and judging by the creatures overall facial expression and body language, she might not like what she hears.

"Okay..." He began. "I already told you who I am. I am Fear. But I am also Riley, you."

He could see Riley once again become visibly agitated by this claim. "I'm a part of you." He tried to make things a little clearer. "You have several parts. You are the culmination of those parts. I am part of you." He closed his eyes and rubbed his face. "It's... it's really hard to explain. Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle. I am only a single puzzle piece. You are the entire complete puzzle. Understand?"

She didn't really, but nodded anyway.

"As for what I am; I am an emotion. I am your Fear. I am what makes you feel afraid. You have several emotions, five to be exact. Or rather..." His gaze dropped and he began to look almost guilty. "You had them."

Rileys mind raced with questions. "What do you mean had?"

He returned his gaze to hers, trying to hide his unease. "We used to live in your head. Not your head head, but your psyche. But something happened. We were all forced out, ejected into your world. We don't belong here. And without us, you can't feel."

Riley put her elbows on the table and cradled her head in her hands. Was he trying to say this was what was making her feel so muted? So numb to the world? "I... can't feel?"

"We emotions are what allow you to feel." He continued. "You pretty much can only feel confusion without us. All five of your main feelings come from us or from some combination. Right now, no one is in headquarters; in your mind. That's why you don't feel right. You're missing five big puzzle pieces."

This was getting to be too much. She closed her eyes and squeezed the sides of her head. "But I can feel. Just... not well."

"That's because you're operating soley on your Islands of Personality. That's why you are still you. But they aren't enough. You need your emotions back in place to feel better. I don't really know the most about it. We had manuals with this kind of stuff, but I never got a chance to read them all." His head dropped forward as he began to feel useless. "The others know more than I do. They'd be able to explain it better."

"So where are they?" She asked, sitting back in her chair.

The creature, Fear, squinted his eyes again as a thin veil of water began to appear over them. "I don't know..." He sniveled. "I've looked for them, but I haven't seen any of them."

Riley was having trouble processing all this new information, and that was beginning to frustrate her. Mostly because she didn't actually believe a lot of the things this little person was telling her. How could she? Tiny people inside her head that made her feel the way she did? It was too bizarre. She leaned her head back. "So what happened that forced you guys out?" She snipped.

Her only response was sniffling.

She quickly lifted her head up. That last question was a mistake that she immediately regretted. Fear had broken down. He was sobbing, his long arms hugging his torso, his head and antenna hanging low. He very gently rocked himself back and forth in an attempt to calm himself, but it was no use. He started crying harder. Riley hit on what must have been a very sensitive issue. She decided this might be the place to end their Q and A session for now.

"Nevermind." She told him, leaning close to him again. "It's okay. We'll just figure it out some other time. Why don't you just..." She awkwardly gestured to her own forehead. "Go back for now and we'll find the others later."

Fear looked up with moist eyes quivering. He squeezed his middle tighter. "I... I don't know how." He sniffed.

Riley tried her very hardest not to get frustrated. "Well, how did you get out?" She forced a calm tone.

"It was really bright." He explained, wiping his eyes with his fists. "It was like some bright white doorway. I don't know how to open it again. I was hoping the others would."

Riley put her head on the table and exhaled. This creature, this thing that she thought could solve all her problems and make everything normal again, was just as confused as she was. Though he did explain more about himself and who he was, she was no where closer to mending her numbed mind. It felt like she was back at square one. Things once again seemed very hopeless.

She just wanted to be herself again. She just wanted to feel things like a regular person and go back to living her life. Was it really these tiny people that controlled that? Could he be serious, will she not be the same until she can get these creatures back inside her head? It was so much so suddenly. But what else could she do? Her other option was to hope it was a passing feeling and wait for it to leave on its own, and so far that technique had been failing.

She lifted her head, a more serious and motivated look gleaming in her eyes. "We'll just have to find the others." She decided.


	6. The Other Pieces

The young girl picked up the container, removed the wooden skewer, and replaced the lid before tossing it back into the cold of the fridge. Not knowing if she would need the wood tool again, she brought it to the sink and rinsed it quickly in hot water.

"You know." She began, as she washed her hands out of habit. "You shouldn't let yourself get that bad."

Fear was standing up now and had walked to the edge of the mahogany table. His cheeks reddened a tad and he shyly looked away. "I know." He mumbled. "But... I'm not really used to... Well, having to eat regularly."

Riley stopped the water and grabbed the red towel that hung from the oven handle. "You don't eat?" She asked, becoming more and more used to the bizarre things this creature had to say.

"Well, not really." He folded his arms in thought. "I mean, I could. We emotions just never really needed to. After all, we could just tell you you were hungry. We could kind of..." He looked a little embarrassed. "Feed off of your energy."

Riley hung the towel back on the oven, feeling a little uneasy. After all, she was just learning about relationships between animals in school last year. This was a textbook case of a parasitic relationship in her opinion. It also made her realize, if they told her when she was hungry, was she really deciding anything for herself? She felt like for twelve long years she had been a puppet controlled by five tiny puppeteers. She began to question her own free will.

She shook her head. Now wasn't the time to think about that. First, she would fix the problem... somehow. One of these tiny people had to know something about this situation. Fear thought so, at least. She would assemble them all, one of them would open some portal or door, and things would be better. After the problem was solved, then she could begin questioning the concept of her own psyche.

She walked back over and leaned onto the kitchen table. "So..." She began plotting. "If we're gonna find these guys, I'll need to know what they look like. Do you have any photos?"

Fear shook his head.

"Any... videos? Any drawings? Anything?" She started to get desperate.

Fear only shrugged. He hadn't brought anything with him before he was cast into her world. "I'm sorry." He sounded upset with himself. "I could draw something for you right now, if you want..?"

Riley's eyes lit up. That could work. But, then again, how was she going to get a writing instrument that tiny? Paper could be ripped, but a pencil wasn't exactly easy to shrink. After a brief moment of contemplation, she had the perfect plan.

"Wait right here!" She shouted, and sped off, dashing up the stairs and flying into her bedroom. From the bookshelf by the bed, she produced a large bin (which she had coated in butterfly stickers years ago) containing all the art supplies she had collected in her short life. Near the top was a barely used set of crayons that she had just gotten a month ago. It was one of the nice ones, too, with a whole rainbow of colors and even a sharpener on the back. She grabbed the brightly colored box along with a few sheets of paper and made her way back to the kitchen.

As she began her return, a thought occurred. She was so excited about getting the crayons, she had left the little creature completely alone. He would have had no problems escaping, disappearing for days again. And what if he began to starve again and she couldn't get to him in time? Then how would she get better? Riley wanted to kick herself for making such a stupid mistake. Leaving a skittish thing like him unsupervised, he would no doubt be long gone when she made it to the table.

But to her surprise, as she descended the stairs, she could still see him. He had moved to the other end of the table, watching the path to the second floor with his huge bright eyes, his nervous hands interlocked. He had been waiting patiently for her return, even though he had the perfect chance to escape. Riley was surprised. She guessed he really must have meant it when he had apologized. Maybe he could be trusted after all.

Not mentioning her doubtful thoughts, Riley placed the crayons and papers on the table surrounding Fear. He looked at the box of wax with a puzzled expression. She knew what he was thinking, those things were far too unwieldy for a person of his size. But Riley had a plan. She picked up a random crayon and took it to the silverware drawer, where she produced a single serrated butter knife. With the slightest flick of her wrist, she shaved a single spear of wax from the crayons tip and handed it to the creatures lavender hands.

"There!" She said, sounding awfully proud of herself. "I'll make one for all of the crayons. You start drawing!"

Fear glanced at the shaved crayon stick in his hand and smiled. It was the perfect size. He climbed on top of the paper delicately so as not to wrinkle it, then laid on his chest. After a bit of thought and planning, he began to doodle.

Riley was making more little spears of color. She was halfway through the box when she glanced at what Fear had begun to produce. Quickly, she put down what she was doing and gently pushed on his hand, just hard enough to stop him from drawing. He looked up at her with a nervous expression, wondering what he had done wrong.

"Wait just a second." She remembered to keep a calm tone to avoid spooking the tiny emotion. "That's a little too small. You have to draw them big so I can see them, okay?"

"O-oh." he stammered. "Okay. I'll try..."

The little creature wasn't so sure about his drawing ability, especially if he was forced to do it at such an extreme scale, but he obliged. He got up, relocated to an empty piece of the paper, then settled back down and resumed drawing, except this time with big exaggerated strokes. Riley resumed cutting the rest of the crayons into sticks for his picture.

"And make sure you color them." She added, tossing a few more sticks in his growing pile. She wanted an accurate skin tone on all of them. Perhaps the other four were emitting the same rings he was. And perhaps, she deduced, all of their rings are the color of their skin. That is, unless they all had the same skin tone. Or if they weren't all made up of light specs like he was. Riley really didn't know what to expect. Fear looked so strange, were the others just as bizarre looking?

After finishing the last spear, she took a seat across from the purple emotion. She was excited to see what he was drawing, but due to the way he was laying on the paper, it was near impossible for her to catch a glimpse. She would just have to be patient.

As it began to become clear that this would take some time, Riley pulled one of the other papers close to herself and withdrew a crayon from the box, now sporting a deep groove where the knife had taken a part of its shape. She began to draw as well. She drew Fear. She was so fascinated with how he looked. It was something she never wanted to forget, even after he had returned to her mind. And since he was holding so steady as he continued his own picture, now was as good a time as ever.

She made sure she got all of his odd features. She drew his giant round eyes, his long slender torso, his dapper little clothes, and the little hair-like appendage in its resting position of a loose curl. She smiled. He was a silly little thing. It was so hard to believe he was real.

After she had finished coloring it, having a bit of trouble with the hounds tooth pattern on his sweater, she sat back and admired it for a second. As she went over every detail to make sure she hadn't missed anything, she saw the tiny figure across from her drop the wax stick he was holding and sit up, stretching his aching back. His picture was complete. Riley, though still lacking her emotions, was so excited to see what he had come up with.

Fear felt her gaze on his back and turned to meet her eyes. She smiled, her eyes alight with curiosity. He couldn't help but return a smile, as he struggled to his feet on sore legs and backed away from the paper. Holding back her excitement, Riley had to force herself to slowly reach out and pull the paper closer to herself.

Before she even began to analyze the four figures drawn in front of her, she was fascinated with Fear's art style. It was almost identical to her own. In fact, if she kept it, she knew everybody would assume that her own 12 year old hands had doodled them. It made sense, she supposed. He had been saying that they were one and the same. And that meant that these other four creatures were puzzle pieces of Riley as well.

The figure farthest to the left was immediately the most eye catching, and that wasn't just because it was the largest. She couldn't tell if it was due to Fear's artistic interpretation, but it looked almost exactly like a human. It was tall, trim, and had what appeared to be a lime green sundress with tiny bursts of color. It almost looked barefoot, and messy short blue hair topped its round smiling face. The only baffling detail was its color scheme. It's skin was colored bright gold, and Fear seemed to have lightly colored a soft blue glow all around it.

"Who's this?" Riley asked, pointing to the happy figure.

Fear immediately smiled. "That's Joy." He began. "She's kinda like your first in command."

"Is she your boss?" Riley asked softly.

"Oh, n-no." Fear was startled by the question. "She just kinda took charge. She's always been more enthusiastic about her work, so it just sorta naturally happened that she began to lead the rest of us. We don't mind, though. Whenever Joy is in command, you are happy. And that makes the rest of us happy, too." He glanced over at Riley with a smile spread across his thin face.

Riley continued to the next figure in line. This one was far shorter than the Joy drawing, and far less bright and happy looking. Its squat figure, decorated in a huge white sweater and deep blue leggings, stood in a solemn pose with a look of sorrow drawn on its light blue face. Its dark blue hair swooped to one side, and giant round glasses magnified its small blue eyes.

Riley slid her finger over to the second figure. "How about this one?" She asked.

Fear followed Riley's gesture and, still smiling, gave a bit of a sigh. "Sadness." He answered.

Riley's numbed head forced a laugh. "Maybe I'd be better off without her, huh?" She asked somewhat jokingly.

Fear turned to her looking worried. "No no!" He whimpered, sounding somewhat alarmed. "She's very important! Sure I..." He looked down at his hands, now rubbing together absentmindedly. "I thought that once, too... But Sadness isn't just about making you cry. If you never get sad, you never let go of the things that eat away at you. It takes feeling sorrow and mourning to get over what you've lost."

Riley was a little taken aback by how serious the little creature had become. But he was right, she guessed. Still, she thought, it would be nice to never have to be sad.

She continued right along to the next drawing. This one, if it was possible, was even shorter than the last one. Riley wasn't sure if he had done it on purpose, but Fear had drawn this one in almost the perfect shape of a square. A huge brow line hung furiously over its huge red eyes, its wide mouth slightly open to reveal clenched teeth. It wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled, sporting a tie that almost matched the red color of its skin.

Riley put a finger over the square figure. "Who's this happy guy?" She smiled.

Fear chuckled as he studied the drawing. "That one's Anger." He laughed nervously. "He pretty much makes that face all the time. He's all about getting things his way; our way. And if we don't get what he thinks we deserve, that's when he ignites." The little creature imitated the sound of fire, his purple hands just above his head mimicking the movement of flickering flames.

"He's got a pretty fiery temper, huh?" Riley leaned forward a little more onto her elbows, thinking of the times her fury had gotten her into a bit of trouble. At least she now had someone to blame.

Fear nodded, wincing a little. He wasn't sure if the girl completely understood what he had meant, but he couldn't help remembering the feeling of being burned by the little red mans explosive outbursts.

Only one last figure stood in the line up. Farthest to the right stood a creature of medium height in comparison to the others. Little flower-like patterns of color decorated its dress, accented by a thick belt at its mid line. Its shoes were coordinated with its small scarf, and both its hair and makeup put emphasis on its attention to fashion and style. Fear had colored it almost exclusively in greens, even its lime toned skin.

Whereas with the three other figures she had at least a guess of which emotion they had represented, Riley was at a loss with this last one. It seemed all her basic emotions had already been covered. What else was there? "So..." She thought hard, trying to remember what else she could feel before this had all begun. "Who is this last one?"

Fear's gaze shifted to the last one in line. "That would be Disgust."

"Disgust..?" Riley had parroted back. She wouldn't have guessed that would be one of her five main emotions.

"Mhm". Fear nodded, staring proudly at his artwork. "She pretty much decides your tastes, be it in food or fashion. It's up to her to make sure you don't eat anything that could possibly hurt us and to make sure you fit into society while staying an individual."

Riley only responded with a shrug. That did seem pretty important, she guessed.

She took one long look at all four figures in line, including the tiny lavender one hovering just above the paper. She marveled at how unique each one looked, and how surprisingly color coordinated they were. Even if she had known she had five tiny people in her head, she could never have guessed how diverse a bunch they would be.

She sighed, suddenly coming to terms and accepting the new fact that these figures were a part of her. "So these guys are... My puzzle pieces?" She asked quietly. "They're my other emotions?"

Fear took a step back from the picture to appreciate it as a whole and nodded slowly. "Yup." He whispered almost to himself.

Riley could hear that his breathing had significantly slowed. He stood there, unblinking, staring long and hard at the other emotions in their drawing form. Though the rest of him remained as still as concrete, Riley could see that expressive hair on the back of his head droop down, hanging in a sad curl that barely grazed his neck.

Riley felt a pang of empathy from her muffled mind. Her numbness couldn't conjure a response, so she only stared at the picture with him, her breathing just as slow as his.

He remained quiet for near five minutes, before barely whispering in a mournful tone, "I miss them so much."


	7. Hiding her Fear

After Riley was sure she had studied the drawing long enough to have stored their appearances in her memory, she decided to put both doodles in a safe place in case she needed to reference them again. As she stacked the papers and gathered the crayons back into their box, she noticed the little purple figure on the table wander over to an empty place and lay himself down on his side.

"Are you alright..? She asked, scooping up all the wax spears for if she ever needed him to draw again.

The creature, startled, rolled over onto his other side to face Riley. "Y-yeah." He mumbled unconvincingly. "My back was just sore from bending down for that long..."

Riley made a sound of acknowledgement. She was surprised that long, awkward back of his was capable of supporting itself. She thought it must give the little thing problems all the time. She flicked a cupboard door open for a sandwich bag to store the sticks, then gathered all the art supplies in her arms.

She once again made her way up the stairs in her room, glancing briefly from the top step at the creature on the table. But he only laid there, his sides expanding in a heavy sigh. He had no plans of going anywhere. Convinced, Riley felt confident in letting him out of her sight.

When the bin was returned to its home, art supplies in place, Riley skipped back down the stairs. She had so many more questions for this little man. About where they all lived and what they did all day. But just as she approached him, she realized it may be a bit before she learned anything more.

The brief moment he had spent laying down was more than enough for him to drift off. His dark ringed eyes were completely shut, his face for the first time taking on a relaxed appearance. She could hear the tiniest snoring emanating from his figure with each lazy breath. Riley guessed that the poor thing hadn't had much sleep in recent days, explaining his somewhat disheveled appearance, and decided that she should let the creature sleep. She wondered if this was also something he had only done since they had separated.

Not wanting to leave his side for when he woke up, Riley delicately scooped his figure up from the hard wood table. He only barely stirred at the transition to her hand, too tired to wake up for most anything. Acknowledging that he was still fast asleep, Riley confidently yet carefully brought the little emotion with her back to the living room sofa.

She gently slid his tiny body onto the softness of the cushion, a much nicer place to rest than the stiff table he had passed out on, and then slowly took her place next to him. Though she had just had a long conversation with a small being claiming to be a misplaced part of her own psyche, she still couldn't muster up the motivation in her muted mind to do much of anything besides sit and stare at what was on the television. After all, she was only trying to pass the time until he awoke. When he did, she decided, they would hunt down the other little people and put this whole mess behind them. She would save her fleeting motivation for that.

Making sure the volume was low enough to not disturb the sleeping Fear, she put on a mindless show to watch. Though she tried to focus on what was playing, she was too distracted by the image in her head of Fear's special drawing of his four companions. Where would she find them? How would they react to her presence? Would she have to catch them as well? Would Fear work as bait? Or could he convince them she wasn't a threat?

Many questions crossed through her muffled head. As the show played like white noise in her ears, as her breathing lined up with the slow sighs of the sleeping emotion, she didn't even realize when she had drifted off as well.

She finally awoke as the 4:00 television came to a close promptly at 4:30, playing a loud alternate version to the theme song over its credits. The first trumpet blare had startled her back into conciousness, and as she began to realize that she had fallen asleep, she began to wonder for how long she was out.

When she saw the time, she gasped, feeling the hairs on her neck stand on end. 4:30. Her cousin would be home any second. She whipped her head to the side and saw that Fear had only slightly shifted during thier afternoon nap. If her cousin spotted the little person beside her, Riley couldn't even begin to guess what would happen.

Her own panic feeling a little stronger than it recently had been, she pushed on Fear's shoulder repeatedly. "Hey!" She shouted. "Wake up!"

Fear's eyes snapped open with a gasp. He sat up in an instant, his gigantic eyes nervously scanning the area around him as he tried to figure out where he was. "Wh-what!? What's happening!?"

"My cousin!" Riley leapt to her feet with a rush of adrenaline. "She could be home any second! You have to hide!"

Fears pupils constricted. In an insane flurry of motion, he scrambled to his feet, beginning to sweat and tremble and generally panic. "HIDE." He repeated at full volume, whipping his head from side to side like a startled bird. "YES. HIDE. WHERE?"

His panicking only made her more uneasy, making it difficult for her to think too clearly. "Where-" She almost shouted back. "Where do you go at night? Where do you sleep?"

Fear took only a split second to think about it. He pointed a shivering finger at the base of the tv stand. "There!" He screamed.

Riley instantly snatched the little emotion from the couch with trembling hands and sprinted across the room to the indicated location. She dropped to her knees with a thud, reaching her arms into the shadow beneath the stand and releasing the small creature, who stumbled out of her hands dizzy and visibly shaken. He was not used to getting picked up and whisked around, and frankly, he hated it. He hated heights, he hated moving too fast, he hated sudden g forces. Being handled like that was all three. But he found his bearings and quickly trotted deeper into the darkness.

As soon as he was out of sight, the young girl jumped to her feet and made a mad dash to the front door. Out of breath with an accumulation of sweat on her brow, she peered out the small peephole into the front yard. The driveway was completely vacant, there wasn't even a single car passing by her side street. Riley backed away from the door and let out a relieved sigh. Perhaps, she thought, she had overreacted in her sleepy state. Her cousin wasn't here just yet, but she would no doubt arrive within a half hour.

Riley began to wonder if Fear was really hidden enough. What if her cousin wanted to sit on the sofa? What if she caught a glimpse of his tiny figure beneath the tv stand? She decided she had better check if he really was out of sight while she still had time.

She grabbed the flashlight from the kitchen and returned to the shadow under the furniture. But when she turned the light on, she saw the floor was entirely bare. A shiver went down her spine. He didn't... did he?

"Fear!?" She called into the darkness, shining her flashlight left and right.

"Wh-what?" She heard his distinctive nervous voice reply. It was definitely coming from under the stand, but where?

She wriggled further under the tv and shined the light slightly upward. Hidden in an open wooden panel on the underside of the stand was the little purple emotion. He squinted as the bright torch shined in his eyes, putting up a single soft hand to block the burning. He was crammed in the insignificant space, which he had filled with all manner of dust and fiber debris in a strange makeshift nest.

Riley was able to feel her sympathy through her numbed thoughts. She couldn't make him stay there. She could barely believe he had been staying there for as long as he was. Holding the light on him, she reached a hand out and held it flat just below the hidden entrance like a platform.

Fear stared at the hand curiously.

"Come on." Riley once again had to remind herself to stay calm and speak quietly. "You can't stay here."

Fear didn't understand. He wondered if he had done something wrong. "I can't..?"

She pushed her hand even closer, pressing it against the wood for stability. "Here." She encouraged. "I'll take you somewhere better."

The little creature studied the appendage closely. He began to slowly wriggle his way out of the crammed space, pausing as he reached a leg out and pressed his shoe into her palm. "What about your cousin?" He asked nervously.

"She's not here yet, but she could be any second. So come on! Hurry!" She slightly shook the flashlight in an attempt to get the cowardly emotion moving.

He once again looked down at the hand and swallowed hard. He really didn't like being held, but his fear of getting discovered overpowered that dislike. He gathered up his courage, then slowly put his other foot in her hand. He knelt down in the center of her palm, too scared to stand up if she planned on lifting him.

Riley acknowledged his nervousness, feeling his shivering as well as his warmth radiating through her hand. She carefully pulled her arm back out into the light of the room, making sure not to hit the figure on anything as he emerged. When he was completely revealed, she shut off the flashlight and very delicately began to rise to her feet, trying not to move too quickly with the shaking creature in hand. She stopped when her hand was directly in front of her face.

Still tensed and gripping her palm tightly, Fear stared at Riley with quiet awe. He never thought he would ever see her in person, let alone be able to talk and interact with her. Yet here he was, so close to home and yet so far away. Gazing into her shimmering blue eyes, he began to feel himself relax. He felt protected. He knew that he was safe with her, and that she would never let anything ever hurt him.

The young girl smiled at the little figure. "Ready?" She asked, tossing the heavy flashlight onto the couch. Fear responded with a nod.

Riley quickly made her way to her bedroom, trying her hardest to keep her hand as stable as possible. She could feel the little creature grab tighter onto her flesh as she climbed the stairs, his little head bobbing with step she took. As the second floor came into view, the emotion sat up taller, examining every corner as he turned his head this way and that. The girl could tell he hadn't been on the second floor yet. Not in person. He checked to make sure there was no apparent danger anywhere near them as Riley opened her door and stepped into the sun lit room.

She took Fear to the corner of the room where her twin bed met the wall, topped in bright yellow sheets with a few stuffed animals strewn about the pillows. She leaned forward, reaching her hand out and flattening it on the soft comforter, and Fear gingerly stepped off. He turned and looked up at Riley, looking nervous and a bit perplexed.

Riley took a few steps backwards toward the door. "Alright, you stay here." She spoke just above a whisper. "I'll be back once my cousin goes into her room for the night. Just stay quiet and stay out of trouble."

Fear anxiously looked around. He had seen this room hundreds of times. He knew where everything was hidden, he knew what was in most all of the books on the shelf, he even knew the names of all the players on each piece of hockey memorabilia that littered the entire enclosure. Yet it still all felt like a new world to him, and he was scared of being left alone again.

Riley saw the anxiety in his face and used her best reassuring tone as she began to exit the room. "You'll be okay." She smiled. "I promise."

She softly closed the door, and the little emotion sighed.

Riley had only just closed her bedroom door when she heard the front entrance to the house burst open. Her cousin made a sound of exasperation as she stumbled in, tossing her purse onto the dining room table. Riley hadn't even heard her ancient car creep into the driveway, which was surprising given how loud it always was. With a kick, the closed the door behind her and flopped onto the nearest kitchen chair.

"Riley?" She shouted, her voice sounding tired and hoarse.

The young girl sprinted down the steps and stopped dead in front of the elder girls seat. "Yes?" She responded, trying her best to sound inconspicuous.

Her cousin lifted her heavy head and raised one eyebrow. "What were you doing up there? Why are you doing running down the stairs like that?" She asked in the same exhausted voice.

Riley shrugged. "No reason..." She mumbled, looking the other way.

Her cousin laughed and leaned her aching head backwards again, face pointed at the ceiling. "Oh good." She chuckled. "For a second I thought you were trying to hide some animal from me, or something."


	8. Come Nightfall

Keeping a secret, Riley had learned, was extremely difficult. That whole evening had been a battle to keep quiet about everything that had happened to her earlier. She wanted to tell her cousin. She wanted to show her the little thing she had locked up in her room. But it was her duty to protect the fragile emotion. Riley had had an indescribable amount of trouble coming to terms with the existence of this tiny man herself. There was no way she could get her cousin to keep quiet. She would call Riley's parents, and they would call the police, and the little creature would be whisked away for experimentation, leaving Riley numbed for the rest of her life. She couldn't risk that. So she put on a calm and controlled facade, masking her racing thoughts about these bizarre emotions lost in her world.

She was in luck, though. After an incredibly exhausting day at her office, Riley's cousin was far too tired and sore to care about much of anything. One of her coworkers had called in with the flu, leaving the rest of them to pick up the slack. She had been flooded with paperwork all day, even to the point of opting out of her breaks to make sure the work load was done in time. After such a stressful day, all she cared about was taking care of the young girl she had been put in charge of, and resting.

Not feeling particularly thrilled at the idea of cooking, she had pitched the idea of takeout Chinese to Riley, who was more than happy to agree. Ordering out meant less time spent cooking, and that meant less time before the older woman retreated into the master bedroom for the night.

Over dinner, her cousin had started a few meaningless conversations. It was really just background noise for both participants, though. One was too tired to care, the other too mentally dulled. Riley had mentioned she had done some drawing during the day, omitting the part about having doodled with a small purple person. Her cousin had stated something about a coworker getting into an argument over the phone at work and very nearly losing their job. Both tales were met with the others nodding and quiet sounds of acknowledgement. They were simply going through the motions.

Even though she desperately wanted to go to her room and check on the emotion within, Riley decided to sit on the couch after the meal like she had been for the past few days. It was at about that time that her cousin would check out for the night, then she could head for her own room. But surprisingly, her relative had decided to join her on the sofa for a tad, too tired and full to make the journey to the second floor just yet.

Right before taking a seat, the older girl grabbed the black object from the sofa.

"What were you doing with the flashlight?" She asked, holding up the tool Riley had forgotten to put away earlier.

"Oh. I was just trying to look under the furniture again." Riley mumbled, mentally slapping herself for leaving it laying around.

"You're still hearing that scratching sound?" The cousin placed the light on the ottoman and sat next to the younger girl. "Maybe there are some mice lurking around here somewhere."

Riley didn't respond. She just stared at the program on the television, quietly wishing the woman would leave so she could check on Fear.

It felt like forever before her cousin finally stood up once more. She cracked her neck and stretched her thin arms high above her head. "Well..." She began. "I think I'm gonna lie down for a while."

Riley glanced up at her, trying not to look as excited as she felt inside.

"I'm sorry." The woman stumbled to her purse and revealed her phone from the pocket. "I'm just really tired. I can spend more time with you on the weekend, okay?"

Riley pretended to sound mildly disappointed. "Alright..." She sighed.

And with that, the elder girl finally made her way to the master bedroom.

As soon as she heard the door click shut, Riley shut off the television. It was about time, she thought. She was dying to know what Fear had been doing this whole time. Trying to make her footsteps as quiet as she could, she trotted over to the base of the stairs. But right before she began to ascend, something caught her eye. The leftover Chinese had been left on the table. Her cousin would no doubt be back to pick it up when she did her nightly round to make sure the house was secure for the night. After a moment of thought, Riley grabbed one of the containers and brought it with her into the bedroom above.

When she stepped in, she noticed the bed was empty. She hadn't thought the little creature would've been capable of getting down from such a height on its own. She shut the door behind her and glanced around the room.

"Fear?" She called out at a volume just above a whisper.

But before he could respond, she had spotted him. He was by the shelves in the corner farthest from the bed, seated on the floor. He had found the art box where Riley had put the drawings from earlier, and had removed the one she had done of himself. He seemed lost in thought as he studied the crayon doodle in front of him.

Riley quietly approached him from behind. "Do you like it?" She asked, bending over just a little.

Fear turned around quickly and looked up at her. "Oh!" He sounded startled, pushing the drawing back into the art case. "Y...yeah. I didn't..." He dropped his head and began to look a little guilty. "I didn't hear you come in."

The young girl shrugged. "I only just got in." She sighed, slowly seating herself next to the emotion. "It took my cousin forever to leave the room. But I brought you something."

Confused, Fear tilted his head slightly. Riley set down the white box she had been clutching, placing it between her and the purple figure. A red image of a dragon wrapped around several of its cardboard sides.

"I thought you might want some dinner." Riley smiled, opening the package and removing the plastic fork that had been sticking out of the top. The food still retained some of its heat, and the smell instantly flowed through the room. Fear hadn't really thought about it, but he was famished.

She carefully scooped up a few bits of rice onto the utensil, then placed the fork gently on the wood floor in front of him. Fear was a little sad that he didn't have any silverware his size, but was too hungry to care for long. He picked up a single gravy-covered grain of rice with the tips of his fingers.

As he started eating his ration, Riley stood up once more and stared at the floor just beside the bed, trying to get her muffled mind to think.

Fear looked up at her, swallowing what was in his mouth. "What is it?" He asked quietly.

"If you're gonna sleep here, you're gonna need a bed." Riley put a hand to her chin. "And I think I know how to make one small enough."

The girl quietly wandered out of her room and into the closet beside the bathroom. Inside were all sorts of things for use around the house, mostly stuff that didn't have a place anywhere else. She recalled when her father had re insulated parts of the roof. Sure enough, he still had some of the foam from the job; both the wire-y kind and the cushy kind. The seafoam green soft foam would work as a perfect mattress. Using the fabric scissors kept in the same closet, she cut out a rectangle of the squishy material. She also grabbed a few tissues and two cotton balls before shutting the closet and returning to the bedroom.

With her makeshift mattress sheets and pillows, Riley was able to assemble a tiny Fear sized bed on the floor just beside her own. It actually looked pretty comfy, she thought. Far comfier than the rats nest he had been sleeping in before. The little emotion had quickly finished the small amount of rice offered to him and, full and contented, walked over to see what the girl had been doing. He took note of the bed on the ground, and slowly approached it.

He placed his hands on the tissue sheets. With wide bright eyes, he turned and looked at the girl towering above him, his antennae dropping. "Is this for me..?" He stuttered.

Riley nodded. The tiny creature turned back and looked at the gift once again. He hadn't slept on a real bed in days. It had been torture. He never realized how much he had taken his old bed for granted until he didn't have it. Now he could finally sleep in comfort again. He was ecstatic.

The girl geared herself for bed. She had changed into pjs in her bathroom, giving Fear his own space to ready himself for sleep. But when she returned, nothing had changed. He was still in his full outfit, bow tie and all. It was his only set of clothes, and he wasn't about to take any of it off. He simply slid onto his new bed and covered himself in his sheets, not caring about the uncomfortable ensemble he was wearing. He did, however, kick off his tiny black shoes, laying them neatly on the floor beside him. He rolled over and sighed. It felt just like a real bed.

Riley climbed into her own golden sheets and laid down. Once settled, she reached over a hand and turned off the only light in the room, her lamp on her nightstand. She rolled over, grabbing her teddy bear and clinging tightly to it.

"Good night." She whispered to the little creature on the ground beside her.

He gazed up at her bed through the darkness. "Good night, Riley." He responded.

Though both were extremely exhausted, mentally and physically, neither fell asleep. They both laid there awake, keeping quiet so that the other would believe they were unconscious. But they were unable to stop their minds from going over everything that had happened that day. The whole thing played on an endless loop, and they laid there for hours watching the day unfold over and over again.

Minutes passed. Then hours. They could hear when her cousin emerged and checked the house for the night. They could hear when the house began to creak and settle in the cool air of the night. They could hear the quick skitter of feline feet cross the roof in chase of small prey. In what felt like no time at all, it was 10:59.

And it started.

Fear's eyes opened wide. His body began to heat up, the tiny specs of light that made up his flesh began to move faster and faster. The pain began to build in all his muscles, and he curled in on himself and let out a hushed cry of agony. This strange uncontrollable ritual that happened twice every day was happening again. He couldn't explain it. He couldn't stop it. He only knew that it had started since he had left headquarters and that it happened exactly at 11, am and pm. As the pain continued, he tried his hardest to remain quiet, not realizing that Riley was complete awake and quietly listening to the emotions silent howls.

The heat and speed and pain got worse and worse until finally, the clock flipped to 11. All at once, his muscles throbbed, and his skin emitted a single purple ring of light that silently washed over the wooden floor and anything it ran into. He watched it, exhausted and aching as he tried to catch his breath. Riley watched as well.

It spread almost to the farthest wall of the room before it faded completely. At almost the same time, a second ring of a different color washed from under the door and into the bedroom just before fading away. This ring had not come from the purple emotion lying in his bed, but from outside the room. In fact, judging by the direction and how long it took to go out, it seemed to have come from the master bedroom. Riley and Fear, both completely awake, shot up and exchanged an expression of pure surprise.

It was another emotion. And it was close by.


	9. Midnight Rescue

Charged by the excitement, Fear shot to his feet and made a mad dash towards the bedroom door, not even bothering to replace his shoes. He slammed into the wood and began wildly clawing at the underside of the door in a pathetic attempt to open it. Riley, worried that the scratching may alert her cousin, bolted out of bed and ran over to stop him. She grabbed the golden door knob, and Fear watched her with growing anticipation as he waited for the portal to open.

But she kept the door closed. "We can't go out there!" She hissed. "My cousin will hear us! She'll wonder what I'm doing!"

A tense expression crossed the creatures face. "But! Someone is out there!" He forgot to talk quietly, his whole body shaking with excitement and concern. "We have to- We have to find them! We have to help! They're lost!"

Riley tightened her grip on the doorknob. "If she thinks I'm up looking for mice again, she'll call the exterminators! Then all of you guys will be in danger!"

But Fear wasn't ready to budge on the issue. For the first time since they had come in contact, he became angered. His face twisted to a glare. "Then tell her you got up to use the bathroom!" He stomped a foot to emphasize his point. "We can't just leave them!"

Surprised by the fearful emotions sudden outburst, Riley decided to give in. There was no changing his mind. She let out an annoyed sigh and began to twist the handle. "You better be silent!" She whispered in warning, and finally pushed the door open.

As soon as the crack was large enough for him to slip through, Fear quietly charged out into the hallway. Riley was glad the little figure had forgotten his shoes, his socks were much quieter as he sprinted across the ground.

She swung the door the rest of the way open and silently slipped into the hallway. Fear had already made his way to the door across the hall, remembering the rings path and deducing its point of origin was in the room just beyond. Riley gasped as he put his lavender hands on the doors base.

"No!" She shouted while maintaining a whisper. The door led to the master bedroom where her cousin had been sleeping since she came over to watch the house. Fear glanced back at her as Riley slowly tiptoed over to him. She could hear the older girls snores coming from within. This was far too close for her comfort.

"What are you doing? My cousin's in there!" She spoke as quietly as possible.

"Then I'll just go in! Alone!" He maintained his determination.

Riley's dulled state still managed a growl. There was just no winning. She decided that they had already come this far, why not risk it all. Hesitating for only a moment, she very slowly turned the handle and pushed the door open just a crack. She gave Fear a single nod, expecting him to be incredibly careful not to wake the beast and invoke its wrath. He nodded back in response, acknowledging her concern and assuring her that he would do his best.

With that, the tiny creature slipped into the darkness of the room and disappeared. The young girl prayed for his swift success. But she knew that the rescue mission would take some time, so she decided to wait in her room for his return.

She decided to leave the door slightly ajar. It was clear that the little emotion wasn't strong enough to open it on his own, and she wanted him out of there as soon as possible. Creeping back to her own bedroom, she also left her door open, making a complete escape route back to herself. All she had to do was wait.

She laid back down on her soft bed, covering herself for warmth. She maintained eye contact on the open door, knowing that at any second Fear would parade back in with another emotion in tow. She wondered which of the four drawings she would meet next. She also wondered how they would react to her. She wondered if they would know where all the others were and if they had the knowledge of how to return to her mind. She wondered and wondered. Before she knew it, she had fallen asleep.

Riley awoke promptly at eight thirty, the sunlight trickling in through her window. She rolled slowly onto her back and stretched her extremities, which had become stiff with the long hours of inactivity. As she sat in bed gazing up at the stars on her ceiling, her thoughts and muffled mind began to shift into gear.

It was then that she remembered. Fear! Had he ever come back? Had he found the other emotion? Had he been caught? Riley quickly rolled onto her side. But before she got to her feet, she spotted him. He was sprawled out in his makeshift bed, tissue sheets strewn randomly about. His face was buried deep in the cotton ball pillow, and judging by his slow snoring, he was still in a deep sleep. Riley looked all around him, but there was no other little figures present. Had she dreamed that whole thing?

"Fear?" She spoke only just above a whisper.

Fear slowly began to shift, lifting his tired head from the pillow and turning to the voice that had awoken him. Riley could see the dark, heavy bags beneath his enormous eyes. "What..?" He mumbled, barely conscious.

"Did-" Riley began, shrugging. "Did you find them?"

The question seemed to wake the creatures sleepy mind. "No." He responded, now speaking in his normal voice as he flipped onto his back. "I didn't see anyone. I would've called out to them but your cousin might have heard me." He sat up, stretching his fingers to touch his toes. "I tried to climb the bookshelf to get a better look, but the creaking was too noisy, so I decided to... retreat."

Riley sighed, mildly disappointed. "Well, at least you didn't wake her." she sat up and threw off her covers. "We'll just have to check in there after she leaves for work.

Riley glanced at the clock on her nightstand before struggling to her feet. She plucked a clean outfit from the basket beside her dresser and began to exit the room.

"Where are you going?" Fear asked, watching the girl nervously.

"Downstairs to eat breakfast with my cousin. I'll be back. You try and get more sleep."

"See ya later." The elder girl called out, shutting the heavy front door behind her and making her way to the ancient car in the driveway. Riley listened from the kitchen table as the engine ignited, and the growling motor pushed the vehicle into the street and onward towards the office. Riley had never been more excited to hear that car leave. She threw her cereal bowl into the sink with an awful clang and sprinted back up the stairs.

Fear, unable to return to sleep despite his fatigue, had gotten up and fixed his messy outfit. He had put his shiny black shoes back onto his feet and straightened hsi shirt and bow tie. It was as good as he was gonna look in the same clothes he had been wearing for days on end. When Riley opened the door, he beamed an excited smile at her, then dashed out of the room and to the door across the hall.

Once again, the young girl opened the door a crack. Fear stepped in, but stopped and turned to her. "Are you coming?" He asked, confused.

Riley shook her head. "I might scare them." She responded. "They know you. You go talk to them, I'll wait in my room."

Fear understood. He nodded, then continued the rescue mission solo.

Once in the room, Fear called out to the hidden emotion, but received no response. He listened for movement, but heard nothing. He glanced again at the large bookshelf looming over him and decided to try to climb it a second time.

Having to survive in this world of giants had made him an excellent climber. He gripped the various books and objects with ease, making his way from the first shelf, to the second, and then the third. At each shelf, he stopped and called out once more, just in case the fellow emotion was hiding somewhere in the messy shelves of clutter.

It was when he had made it to the fourth shelf that he finally heard something. It sounded like something had just barely shifted, perhaps nervous of his presence. Listening even closer, he could swear he could hear breathing. He slowly stepped to the middle of the shelf.

"H-hello..?" He called out, his voice trembling with his body. Once again, he had no response. But he was sure it was near, he could feel it. Why weren't they saying anything?

Fear noticed that the corner of the shelf had a few soft cover books and magazines arranged almost like a fort. This, he knew, was no coincidence. It was the hideout of a tiny creature like himself. He took a deep breath, then began to approach the nearest paper wall.

"Hey!" He tried again to make contact. "It's me; Fear! Is someone else there?"

"F...Fear..?" A voice quietly responded from within the book fortress.

The purple emotion immediately recognized the voice of his coworker of twelve years. Invigorated, he tore down one of the books to reveal the forts center.

For the first time in days, he gazed into the eyes of another emotion. It looked back, tired, weak, shocked, and yet so relieved to see a familiar face.


	10. Trust Issues

He couldn't beleive his eyes. He found another piece of the puzzle.

She lay there, awkwardly scrunched into the corner of the fortress she had constructed. It was immediately apparent to Fear that she was extremely weak. She was barely able to hold herself in a seated position, even when supported by her hands. Her color was dulled, her soft glow nearly non existent. Even breathing seemed like a chore.

Fear hadn't moved since he had entered the hide out. He only stared at her. The emotion that had once cared so much about her own appearance now looked ghastly and haggard. Her emerald hair was ratty, her clothes unkempt, her makeup nothing more than a smeared mess. It was so unlike her to allow herself to look this way. Fear knew immediately she was not well.

She, like him, had frozen. She studied him from head to toe, not sure if she could really believe it was him. After being alone for so long, she had almost lost hope of ever finding one of her four companions again. Yet there was no one else he possibly could be. Though her body was frail and exhausted, she felt some relief knowing that she had found another emotion.

Finally, Fear built up the courage to move once more. He knelt down next to the collapsed figure, taking one of her petite lime colored hands in his own. "D-Disgust..." He stuttered. "Are you alright?"

She mustered a weak smile in return. "It really is you..." She smirked. There was no denying that stutter and concern. Tired, ill, and overcome, she felt tears begin to roll down her cheeks.

Fear, feeling overwhelmed with excitement and worry, could feel his own bright eyes beginning to water as well. He gently pulled the weak emotion closer to him, embracing her half-limp body. Disgust, who normally found all displays of affection appalling, allowed the interaction to happen, happy to finally be with one of the people she had missed so dearly.

The lavender creature pulled away, suddenly looking a lot more determined. "We gotta get you down from here! You need food and water and medical attention!"

He stood back up and shoved another of the forts walls with all his might, knocking down the entire structure and scattering the books and magazines on the floor. Now exposed, the green colored emotion squinted as the light from the window poured into the shelf and her water veiled eyes. The books had produced a small sound when they fell, but not at the volume Fear had hoped. He would just have to go get Riley himself.

He turned around to the now half-bare shelf and extended a hand to his comrade. "Do... Do you think you can walk?"

Disgust weakly sighed, using a shaking arm to clear her eyes of moisture. It had been a while since she last tried to stand. She wasn't sure if she had the energy. But she had to try. She wasn't sure where the cowardly emotion was going to take her, but judging by his health, it was no doubt somewhere she could recover. She put her trust in him, and grabbed his hand with her own.

It took all her strength to pull herself to her feet, even with the assistance of Fear. As she stood up taller, the purple creature took her arm and wrapped it around his neck for support, reaching his other lanky limb out to support her from her back. Her knees were shaking, her feet wobbling, but she was standing. Together, they took a few steps forward.

After only the fourth step, Disgust stopped. "I-I can't" She wheezed. "I feel like I'm gonna be sick."

Fear gently eased his coworker back to the wooden ground, where she lay panting in an attempt to catch her breath, her color seeming more faded than ever. She was far too weak to move on her own. It reminded him of when Riley had found himself beneath the cardboard box after he had passed out from exhaustion. Though Disgust hadn't gotten as bad as he had been that day, she was still in desperate need of assistance. And there was only one person capable of providing it.

Fear stood up and began to walk back toward the front of the bookshelf. "Wait right here!" He called back as he prepared himself for the long climb down.

Disgust pushed herself up on her hands, a movement that required far too much effort. "Where are you going?" She gasped.

"I'm going for help! I'll be right back! I promise."

Disgust, not wanting to let the emotion out of her sight after finally finding him, reluctantly gave a nod. She had no other choice. She wasn't getting down by herself. Obviously, the panicky emotion had some sort of idea of what to do. Fear smiled, then hopped down, grabbing onto a book on the shelf below and shimmying down out of sight.

He acrobatically made his way to the floor, carefully and somewhat graceful. As he sprinted to the cracked open door, he glanced back at the bookshelf, hoping that the young girl would be able to help his incapacitated friend.

Riley had been sitting on her bed picking at her hands absentmindedly. She had attempted to read a book to pass the time, but found it impossible to focus on any of the words. She couldn't stop wondering who was hiding in her parents room and in what condition the little figure would find them. She prayed this new emotion would know more than Fear did about what was going on.

Just then, Fear came racing in through the open door. His little hair was standing up almost completely straight, and he was noticeably sweating. "Riley!" He shouted, zooming over to the side of the bed. "You have to come quick!"

The young girl instantly hopped down from the bed. "What?" She yelped. "What's wrong?"

Fear began to push on Riley's foot, which had landed right beside him, as if his tiny body would be able to get her moving faster. "She's sick!" He shouted in a panic, pushing harder. "She's stuck on the bookshelf. You have to help her!"

Riley wanted to know a little more about who exactly needed help, but realized that Fear had become too anxious to provide too many details. She would just have to find out herself. Careful not to kick the creature at her ankle, she took off for the master bedroom, Fear following close behind. In no time at all, she had slammed the master bedroom door wide open with a shoulder and whirled around to face the shelf.

It took her only a moment to spot it. Laying on the fourth shelf was a green emotion, who had jolted up right at the loud noise. Her green eyes met Riley's and her mouth dropped slightly open. Disgust pushed herself backwards slightly, recognizing the young girl but not believing what she saw. It couldn't be, she thought. It's not possible.

"F-Fear!?" The tiny figure shouted.

"It's alright!" Fear shouted, just entering the room and standing beside the girl who towered above him.

"Who-Who is that!?" She shouted, having backed herself into the wall behind her. She could feel herself begin to sweat, which would have bothered her tremendously if not for the danger she felt she was in.

"It's...It's okay..." Fear sighed, talking quieter to try and lower the tension in the room. He gestured up to the girl, who had been staring silently at the emotion on the shelf. "This is Riley."

Disgust already knew that, she just couldn't believe it. She weakly glared at the girl, a tiny warning to stay back.

Riley examined the new creature. Fear's drawing had been surprisingly accurate. Except the figure he had drawn had pristine hair, beautiful makeup, and a well coordinated well put together outfit. The actual Disgust was shaggy looking, pale in color, and coated in a thin layer of dust and dirt. She had not been as lucky as Fear, and had to fend for herself much longer in this world where she didn't belong.

"I'm not..." Riley began, noticing that the instant she spoke, the creature had bared its teeth and sharpened its glare. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I want to help."

The young girl slowly reached out a hand to pick up the fallen emotion. But Disgust reacted extremely negatively, trying with all her precious energy to push herself further away. "St-Stay away from me!" She shouted, her voice hoarse and sickly. "I don't... I don't know where that's been!"

Fearing that she was hurting herself by wasting her dwindling strength, Riley withdrew her hand. She turned to Fear, shooting a defeated expression as if to ask 'what now?'

The purple figure took a few steps closer to Riley, maintaining eye contact with the creature on the shelf. "Disgust." He pleaded. "She just wants to help you. You have to trust us." Fear signaled to Riley to lower her hand. The young girl obliged, kneeling down and creating a platform for the tiny man to walk onto. Centering himself in her palm, he took a knee, and Riley slowly began to lift him up.

Disgust watched with a look of disbelief while maintaining her glare at the girl. Riley's hand met the wood of the fourth shelf, purposefully a bit of a distance from the grimacing green creature, and Fear daintily stepped off. He walked slowly towards Disgust, whose gaze had shifted to him and whose glare had softened a small amount.

"It's just Riley..." Fear stopped only a few steps from the other emotion. "Why would you not trust her?"

Disgust, quickly running out of the energy in her reserves, put her heavy head in her hands. "No. It's not..." She mumbled. "It cant be. It's not possible." She suddenly lifted her head and began to scream. "She can't be here if we are! How could this have happened!?"

Fear instantly became a lot more nervous, his breathing picking up as he took a few shaky steps backwards. "Y-you mean you... Don't remember w-what happened..?" He stumbled over his own words, sweat beginning to accumulate on his face.

She dropped her head once again. "No..." Her voice quivered as the tears returned again. It was too much. In her weakened state, she just couldn't bring herself to comprehend the situation. It had become obvious to the purple figure that her fatigue had made her delirious, and she was only getting worse by the second. To fully communicate with his former colleague, they would first have to revive her to her normal self.

Arguing with the tiny green creature seemed to have drained her last bit of strength. She began to slump forward, as her crying became slow, near silent sobs that began to trail off into labored breathing. She no longer had any way to fight back against the large monster that loomed over the bookshelf. It was now that she could finally be transported.

Recognizing the opportunity, Riley once again reached her hand out, this time being met with no resistance. She very slowly slipped her fingers beneath the warmth of the emotions body, scooping her up into the safety of her hand, all the while Fear watched intently, hoping that the encounter hadn't been stressful enough to cause permanent damage to her weakened form.

As she brought the figure closer to her face, she saw the eyelids of the being lying in her palm gently flutter open, green eyes weakly staring at the young girls face. A look of confusion and wonder began to wash over her, as she finally came to terms with who she was by gazing deep into her bright blue eyes.

"R..Riley..." She managed to wheeze.

"It's gonna be okay." The girl responded in her most reassuring tone.

Without giving a single warning, Riley quickly snatched the other emotion in her left hand, hearing him emit a tiny squeal as her fingers wrapped around his middle. "Come on!" She shouted, yanking him off the shelf and bolting down the stairs with both the tiny creatures in her grip. "We have to help her before we're too late!"


	11. A Second Revival

Here she was again.

For a second time, Riley felt like she held a tiny persons life in her hands. Sure, the first time had been a tad more dire, but it didn't make her any less tense this time around. A creature who was supposedly a part of her very psyche was slowly slipping away. She only hoped that food would revive the poor thing as it had the one before her.

Riley had placed Disgust on the dining room table. She had managed to remain conscious, but only barely. Every so often her eyes, decorated with beautiful emerald eyelashes, would flicker open, glimpse at the world around her, and then slowly shut once more. Every third or fourth breath was accompanied by a soft moan, as if she somehow felt the need to remind everyone that she was in need of assistance.

Fear had been placed on the table as well. He sat just behind Disgust, propping her head and shoulders on his lap to open up her airways a little. He resisted the urge to comfortingly pet her ragged hair, as he knew she was never one for being touched. Instead, he just gently held onto her, repeating kind and reassuring phrases whenever her eyes fluttered open like 'I'm here' or 'you'll be okay'. As an emotion of pure anxiety, he knew exactly what a panicked person liked to hear. He was an expert of experience, Disgust couldn't have had someone better to get her though this tense time.

Riley was at the fridge. She remembered what she had done last time and how well and quickly it had worked. Not about to mess with success, she decided to use the same technique to revive the second fallen emotion.

She sighed with relief as the refrigerator door swung open; the green, translucent Tupperware was still there. She noticed a large portion had disappeared, and assumed her cousin must have taken some with her for lunch at work. The girl removed the cold container, pushing the door back closed with her hip.

Darting to the silverware drawer, she retrieved the wooden skewer that she had hidden beneath the forks. Finally ready, she quickly made her way back to the table at sat at the chair closest to the two emotions atop the wooden surface.

She fumbled with the plastic lid. Fear, noting the presence of the container and skewer, immediately recognized what was happening. As she finally persuaded the tupperware open with a pop, he leaned down to the creature struggling to breathe.

"Here, Disgust." He spoke softly but stern. "You need to eat this."

Disgust's eyes moved beneath her lime green eye lids. "Eat what..?" She groaned, slightly turning her head with what little strength she had.

"It's mashed potatoes." Riley quietly explained, using the skewer to scoop up a tiny amount of the mush. She slowly brought it closer to the green figures face.

Reacting to the rapidly approaching smell, Disgust opened her eyes and studied the mass of food balanced on the stick. She grimaced, struggling to turn away from the offering.

"Ugh." She sounded sickly, extending a hand to keep the skewer at bay. "Too... Too much starch..."

Riley pulled the skewer back and looked at Fear. Though her mind was still a numb fog since the day she lost her emotions, she could feel her sarcastic ability a little stronger since they had made contact with the second tiny person. She made a glazed over face, giving the purple figure an 'are you kidding me' kind of look.

Fear responded with a shrug. Even starving and fighting for her life, Disgust was still Disgust. He knew that once she decided she didn't like something, there was no point trying to change her mind. Had they force fed her, she surely would've coughed it back up, wasting even more of her rapidly fading energy. They would have to try something else.

Riley replaced the smidgen of potato and closed the container. As she got up to put it back in the fridge, she began to wonder what kind of thing this creature would like. As she had never really met her before, she had no way of telling what her tastes were like. How could she guess what would be deemed acceptable?

Then she remembered. This wasn't just an emotion; this was her emotion. Surely is would have the same tastes as the girl it resided in, she thought. What did Riley like to eat?

The young girls face lit up. She opened one side of the fridge, tossing the tupperware onto a chilled shelf and slamming the door back shut. Then she opened the other side, the freezer, and removed the tub of vanilla ice cream that rested on the top most icy platform. Riley adored ice cream, especially vanilla. There was no way the little creature could refuse this. If she did, then surely she didn't belong to Riley.

She made her way to the table once more and resumed sitting by the tiny people. She opened up the golden ice cream container, and could see those green eyes instantly snap open. Her face, which had still been twisted into a sneer, soften significantly. She seemed to push onto Fear with her head and shoulders, trying to sit herself up more but not having the strength to do so.

Riley was just about to put the wooden stick into the treat when she heard a few tiny noises of alarm. She froze, looking at Disgust with a quizzical expression.

"Isn't that..." She slowly mumbled. "Isn't that the same thing that was... Was just in the potatoes..?"

Riley's eyebrows fell into a halfhearted scowl. She emitted a quiet grumble as she once again got to her feet, making her way back to the silverware drawer. "You're not making this easy." She growled, mildly annoyed as she threw the skewer into the trash can and retrieved a fresh one from the box.

Fear gave a tiny smile. "At least her personality's all right." He commented.

With a fresh skewer in hand, Riley returned a final time, hovering over the seat for a moment in case there was anything else she needed to do first. Not hearing any further complaints, she planted herself in the chair and pulled closer to the mahogany surface.

She scooped up a little glob of the sweet cream and once more brought the wooden stick close to the fallen figures face. This time, instead of backing away from the gift, she leaned in closer. However, she did not open her mouth. Instead, she stared at the lump of food hovering in front of her face.

Riley raised an eyebrow. "It's okay." She tried to coax the tiny creature. "Eat it."

Disgust's eyes began to close again under their own weight. "I can... Feed myself..." She moaned, attempting to raise a hand but being met with a good amount of difficulty.

"No, you can't." Fear was becoming more tense the longer his coworker went without food. There was a commanding sort of tone coming through his normally nervous speech pattern. "You can't even lift your arms anymore. And they don't have the right size utensils here, anyway."

The faded green emotion's face scrunched, a single tear of stress rolling down her cheek. Fear hadn't given a thought to being hand fed while in his compromising position, but this proved far too painful for Disgust, who was all about the social norm. She felt it was far too demeaning. But she was quickly realizing that she had no other options, and that stressed her even further. Embarrassed, defeated, and with tears running down her face from fatigue and delirium, she finally opened her mouth to accept the melting treat. Riley gently pushed the skewer forward.

The trio sat in silence as the girl spooned more and more ice cream for the creature. Disgust was too embarrassed to say anything, and the others stayed quiet so as to not make her more uncomfortable. But it was clear that once again the food was working. In no time at all, her color began to return. She found the strength to push off of Fear, and sat up under her own support.

When her color glowed a lime green and her eyes had brightened quite significantly, the emotion decided she had eaten enough. The next offering of food was met with a gentle shake of her head, and she turned her face the other way. Understanding the gesture, Riley put back the little bit of ice cream on the skewer, closed the box, and returned it to the icy freezer before it could melt any further.

As she returned, she heard the little figure let out a slow sigh. "So." She began, her voice sounding less sickly than it had mere moments ago. "You really are Riley, huh?"

Riley shrugged. "Yeah. I guess I am." She mumbled, not really sure how to answer the question.

Disgust looked up at her with shimmering green eyes. "I never really thought... I'd ever see you. Like, really see you."

"Tell me about it..." Fear nodded.

"Disgust?" Riley asked, noticing the figure was taken aback slightly at the young girls mention of her own name. "Were you up there this whole time?"

The emotion shook her head. "No. I wandered around for a while, at first. I found a few things to eat here and there and was able to find places to rest. But I couldn't tell where I was. Everything was so big, and all the places I could fit were dusty and dingy. I saw the bookshelf and made my way up there." She sighed, remembering the effort she had put into the endeavor. "I thought, maybe I'd find someone else. I had been looking for the others the entire time. But by the time I made it to that shelf, I was too tired to continue, and I built myself a place to stay hidden. I planned on moving the next day but... By then I guess I had just... Given up." She shrugged. "I wound up laying there for a day, maybe two. I thought I would be alone forever."

Her eyes began to glisten with moisture. Fear put a reassuring hand on Disgust's shoulder, surprised that he wasn't pushed away. "I felt like that, too." He spoke solemnly. "But if you're here, the others can't be far, right?"

"Wait a minute." Riley interrupted, not wanting to miss her chance for more information. "Do you know how to get back? How to open the portal back to my mind?"

Disgust looked up and shrugged. "I can't even really remember how we got out..." Her eyebrows lowered in thought. "I just remember it was really bright. And..." She slowly turned to face Fear, who had begun to sweat nervously. "You. You were shouting something..."

"I-I mean. We w-were all shouting things." His stutter had intensified. He wiped a torrent of perspiration from his face. "I just m-might have been the loudest..."

Riley was about to question the purple emotions sudden change in demeanor, when both the tiny figures in front of her suddenly gasped. It was happening again. Their bodies began to heat up from the rapid vibrations of the light specs that were their skin. Disgust looked at Fear, making sure that she wasn't the only one this was happening too. Fear glanced at the digital clock on the oven. Sure enough, it was 10:59.

"You've been doing this too?" Disgust asked, the pain audible in her voice.

Fear only responded with a groan and a nod. He tried to ease the pain by curling up, but it simply didn't help. He knew only one thing would end the suffering.

Both continued to writhe in agony, with Riley looking on feeling totally powerless. Finally the clock switched to 11:00. In one last wave of pain, both of the emotions bodies emitted a colored ripple; one green and one purple. The two rings collided with each other on the table.

From the point of intersection, a new ring emerged. This one glowed much brighter than the other two, and rippled out much faster across the ground. It even seemed to hum with energy that got slowly quieter as the light became dimmer. After traveling a distance far longer than the other two rings, it faded out completely, leaving the three in a confused silence.

Disgust and Fear exchanged a bewildered expression, then both turned to Riley. She only shrugged, just as lost as they were. These strange rings were only getting more mysterious.


	12. Necessities

"Like, a visual SOS. A search light sort of thing, you know?"

Riley was at the sink, quickly washing the skewer she had used and wetting a towel under the tap. While feeding the tiny emotion, a few drops of ice cream had spilled onto the table. Not wanting to raise her cousins suspicions any higher than they already were, she planned on getting rid of the evidence long before it was a problem. As she prepped a wet rag, she could hear the two creatures discussing what they thought was the purpose of the strange rings they were producing.

"I don't know." Fear rubbed the back of his neck. "If they were search lights, why would they mix like that? I mean, did you see that? When our rings met, they formed a bigger stronger ring."

Disgust shrugged, readjusting her legs that had begun to fall asleep from sitting on the hard table. "I dunno." She admitted. "To send the message farther?"

"But then, why not just go farther in the first place?" Fear leaned forward, wrapping his slender arms around his knees. "Maybe it's some kind of defense system? But it needs more of us to power it for it to work."

Disgust shook her head. "No way." She scooched to her left a tad, as Riley had come over with her towel and was attempting to wipe down the surface that the creatures occupied. "Why would it hurt us? And why would it only happen twice a day?"

Riley finished cleaning the evidence from the table and returned to the sink to rinse the rag. She had been listening to the two talk for a while. Each time one proposed their argument, she thought it sounded right, but the other was always right there to disprove their theory. It seemed like every idea was shot down. She would've chipped in her own ideas, but her mind was feeling particularly muffled today. She figured they would figure out the true purpose of the colored rings in due time.

Riley had absentmindedly begun washing her hands after her cleaning, a habit that her mother had practically drilled into her head when she was younger. She could almost feel eyes on her back, and she turned her gaze to the table. The creatures had fallen silent, and Disgust's bright green eyes were watching Riley intently. The young girl, feeling a little awkward from the figures staring, hurried to finish scrubbing, drying her hands quickly. Disgust's eyes wandered elsewhere, and Riley walked over and plopped herself into a wooden chair.

The green emotions gaze had fallen upon her own form. She studied her skin of lime green light specks. Though her color had returned, the coat of dirt and dust she had collected over the past few days still made her color appear somewhat faded. Now that she was awake enough to care, she was appalled by her own state of being. She had never allowed herself to get this, well, disgusting. It was only adding to her stressed mind, already absurdly upset from being tossed in a land so far from her home.

She let out a sigh. "Riley?" She began with a hint of hesitation in her voice. "I know we haven't really talked, and I know we both probably have a lot of questions for each other, but... I really need a favor..."

The young girls eyes widened as she began to wonder what the creature could possibly need that she was capable of providing. "What is it?" Riley sounded concerned.

Disgust's shimmering eyes looked up in a pleading expression towards the girl. "A shower. I need a shower. Or something." As a demonstration, she wiped her hand down an arm, a tiny cloud of debris from her skin puffing into the air. "I can't take this!"

Taking in her words, Fear looked at himself. He hadn't really realized, as he had had other more pressing things on his mind, but he really was filthy. The days of sprinting and sweating and panicking had taken a toll on his personal hygiene. He looked expectantly toward the girl, hoping to also make use of Disgust's request.

Riley stared into the middle space as her numb mind began to process what was being asked of her. Of course they could shower. It's not like she didn't have one available. But they were so very small. Would they be able to use a shower meant for a human being? Logically, it made more sense to Riley for her to just clean the little figures herself, like she had bathed her pet mice many years ago. But with their sentience, she guessed, must have come some form of modesty. She would have to figure out a way for them to bathe themselves in private.

She sighed. She hadn't realized how much was needed of her. These really were little people. And, as people, they were in need of the same basic things she was. They needed more than any mouse or gerbil or any other creature of their size. And the only one who knew about them and was capable of providing them these things was herself, a girl not even in her teens. This was getting to be an incredibly difficult task. Riley wondered just how long she would be able to keep this secret. If she didn't find an emotion that knew its way home soon, she would be forced to look to an adult for guidance, risking the safety of the tiny frail creatures.

It seemed the best way to figure out the problem was to just tackle it headlong. "I think we can figure something out." Riley shrugged, not really sure of herself. She reached her hand down, setting it flat on the table with her palm facing up.

Disgust studied the hand before her, then turned to Fear. She knew what was being asked of her, but wanted to see how the other emotion responded before making any decisions. Fear returned with a reassuring smile, walking slowly and carefully onto Riley's palm while Disgust quietly watched. He centered himself, this time slightly offset to one side, took a knee, and extended a hand to the other creature to join him. She winced, but obliged, taking cautious steps onto the girls palm, holding Fear's hand for support. Seating herself next to him, she gripped Riley's skin and looked up at her.

Feeling they were well balanced, the young girl slowly lifted them from the table, bringing her arm closer to her chest to steady it. Disgust made a few gasps and yelps as they began to move, ducking further into the hand. Fear didn't enjoy the process either, but had gotten used to it over time. He tried to offer whatever support he could, physically and mentally.

Riley made her way up the stairs, taking care to keep the tiny emotions balanced. Though it was clear that the staircase was their least favorite part, it was necessary. The only shower in the house was on the second floor. Ascending the last step, the girl made a sharp right and swung open the door to the bathroom.

The bath tub shower was directly ahead, decorated with a curtain covered in water colored fish and coral. She walked towards it, pulled the lining to the side, and placed the two emotions on the tubs sleek white rim.

"Well..." Riley scratched the back of her head. "Here it is."

Fear studied the fixture in awe. "It's huge." He mumbled to himself.

"Yeah." Disgust agreed, folding her arms. "I don't know if this will work."

The girl shrugged. "Well, it's pretty much our only option." She approached the tap and turned the water on, just enough for a good flow but not as high as she would normally set it for herself. "It's not like I have tiny showers lying around."

Rotating the middle lever, Riley switched the water from the tub faucet to the shower head. With a whine of building pressure, the sprayer burbled to life, and began to shoot a controlled jet of water across the tub. Disgust and Fear took a step back, examining the water that rained down onto the shower floor.

"That's way too strong!" Fear yelped in fright. "We'd be washed away by the current!"

Frustrated and quickly running out of ideas, Riley attempted to turn the flow strength down. But just by lowering it a little, the shower lost the pressure needed to force the liquid up the pipes, and the water began to pour out the tub faucet once again.

Disgust shook her head. "Yeah, this isn't working." She grumbled.

"I'm trying my best!" The young girl snapped, shooting a glare at the emotions. The outburst startled Fear, who quickly ducked behind his green colleague for protection. Disgust was also taken aback. She clasped her hands together and lowered her head in a somewhat submissive pose. She didn't mean to sound nasty, it was just who she was. Getting herself clean was extremely important. She couldn't focus on anything until she was back to her normal hygienic standards.

Riley, realizing she had upset the two, softened her face and sighed, reaching a hand out to shut off the tap. It had been frustrating looking after one creature. Two only made the job harder. But the green figure was right; this wasn't going to work for them. She needed something smaller.

An idea struck the young girl and a smile quickly spread across her face. She hopped over to the other side of the room and gestured towards the bathroom sink. "How about this?" She chirped. "It gets just as hot as the shower, but it's small and not as powerful."

Fear glanced at Disgust, who tilted her head in thought. "Yeah, I guess that would be okay..." She nodded.

Riley had set up a mini shower for her two tiny friends. She had squeezed a tiny drop of shampoo, conditioner and soap onto the porcelain sink for them to use without having to fumble with gigantic bottles (though she doubted Fear would require either of the hair care products). A couple of tissues had been placed next to the faucet to act as towels. Finally, she turned the tap on, just hot enough for a small amount of steam to waft into the air. She smiled brightly. She was so proud; she had been able to provide for the little things. For a little while, it had started to feel like too much. But Riley was clever and resourceful, and she always seemed to come up with something.

As she had set up the makeshift shower, the emotions had debated on who would go first. The argument was very quickly won by Disgust, despite Fear's reasoning that he had done more work and had needed it worse. Either way they would both be clean, so in the end he gave in without too much of a fuss.

Riley placed Disgust on the counter around the sink. "Just shout when you're done, and I'll come get you, alright?" She said while picking up Fear. Disgust nodded, and the young girl exited the room, leaving the door cracked so she could hear her small voice when she called. They went to Riley's room, which was more or less right across the hall, and she placed the purple figure onto his bed before taking a seat on her own.

Fear layed back into his wispy cotton ball pillow with his hands behind his head and smiled to himself.

"You're happy to see her again, huh?" Riley couldn't help but return a smile.

Fear rolled his head over to face the girl. "Yeah." He sighed. "We've never really been apart before, the five of us. Ever since we came to headquarters, it's never been about 'I' or 'me'. It was always 'us'. We shared the same control panel at work, we shared the same room at night. We were always together." He returned his gaze to the ceiling, his smile beginning to fade. "I never really realized how used to it I was. Not until I was all alone..."

The young girl nodded sympathetically. Since there was no one she had ever been around 24/7, she had trouble understanding what it must have been like. She imagined it may be something like her waking up without any arms or legs. Like one day you realized that the things closest to you that you never imagined would ever leave you were suddenly snatched away.

"That's why..." Fear continued in a more solemn voice. "I'm so worried about the others. I don't know how they're gonna handle it. I was lucky. I landed so close by, you found me within a few days. But Disgust." He shook his head. "She had already given up. We only just found her in time. I can't imagine how the other three are faring. I just hope they're okay too.

"But." He found his smile again and turned back to Riley with a more hopeful tone. "Even just having her makes it feel... Like I'm not so alone. I m-mean, not that there's anything wrong with you but... she's someone who really understands what it's like; What I'm going through."

Riley was curious to know where the others were. He brought up a good point that was a little troubling to her. Were the others going to survive until they could be found? Though mildly worried about the others well beings, she couldn't let on that she was nervous, lest she send the frightened creature into a panic. So she put on a reassuring face. "We'll find the others." She said, not really knowing if she could keep that promise.

From across the hall, a tiny voice called out. Riley couldn't make out any words due to the distance between them, but she knew it was Disgust signaling that she was done. Riley picked up Fear, slowly so as not to scare him, and meandered down the hall to the bathroom. She gave a quick courtesy knock on the door before gently pushing it open.

Disgust beamed a huge smile at the two. She was standing next to the sinks still running faucet, her skin of tiny particles still shimmering with moisture. Her dress was still kind of dusty but it was clear that she had beaten some of the dirt out of it while she wasn't wearing it. Her shiny emerald hair was wrapped up in a tissue towel twisted around in a little hat atop her head, the same way Riley's mother had always dried her long hair. Riley could tell that she was feeling much better now that she was clean.

She placed Fear on the counter and scooped up Disgust, once again leaving an emotion to bathe in the sinks running water while taking the other to her room.

Riley placed the clean green creature on the floor and sat back down on her mattress. Disgust, noticing the strange pile of bed-like objects on the ground, walked over to Fear's sleeping space and put a hand on it.

"Did..." She began, sounding almost envious. "Did you make this for Fear?"

"Yeah." Riley responded, laying down on her side. "I can make one for you, too."

Disgust's eyes glowed brighter than ever. A bed. She had been sleeping on the hard wood of the bookshelf for so long. She almost wished it was night so she could enjoy the comforts of a mattress again. Excited and wondering what it felt like, she plopped herself onto Fear's bed and began to slowly pull the tissue out of her hair.

In one swift movement, Disgust pulled a small makeup container out of an unseen pocket and daintily began to apply a foundation to her face. Riley raised an eyebrow.

"You managed to bring that with you?" She asked, smirking.

Disgust laughed. "I always have this in my pocket." She smiled, grabbing a separate container of a different color. "You never know when you need a touch up."

With her makeup applied and her hair washed, she now looked exactly like the picture Fear had drawn. She seemed all around more contented, and was now fully committed to Riley and the search for the others to return home. It seemed like Riley would have to do this with each of the five creatures. To earn each ones trust, she would have to figure out what their different emotions required and cater to them. The cowardly Fear needed reassurance. He needed someone he could trust, and he needed to remain calm. By protecting him and talking quietly and gently, she had won him over. On the other hand, the easily repulsed and somewhat vain Disgust needed to restore her pristine appearance to join Riley's side. She pondered to herself what she would need to do to get the other three behind her.

Upon thinking about the others, a thought hit Riley. She had forgotten all about it, but she may have had a clue to the location of a third creature.

"Disgust!" She half shouted from excitement. "Were you ever outside?"

The green creature shook her head, her glistening and silky hair shaking with her. "No way. I would never have made it down the stairs without your help."

Suddenly invigorated, Riley leapt up and flew down the hall. She gave the bathroom door a few good knocks while holding the knob to prevent it from opening any farther than the crack she had left it.

"Ahh! D-Don't come in!" Fear shouted from within.

"I just have a question!" Riley called back, feeling her heart pick up speed. "Were you ever outside before I caught you?"

"Uhh, n-no." His voice continued to shake after being startled by the knocking. "I tr... I tried at one point. The door was too heavy. W-Why?"

Riley didn't respond. She turned towards her room and giggled excitedly. She may have just discovered where to find the next creature.


	13. The Calm Before

Though the two had prodded, Riley hadn't yet explained the question she had asked them both. She didn't want to excite them, not until they were in high spirits and had their strength. She knew for a fact that Fear hadn't eaten, and wasn't about to set off his anxiety until he had. And in the excitement, Riley had skipped breakfast herself. So after she was able to break for lunch, she would let the other little figures in on what her cousin had said days ago about the light in the yard.

Too excited to sit, Riley had spent the rest of the time pacing back and forth down the hallway, waiting for the little lavender figure to finish his shower. Every time she passed the bathroom door, still open a crack, she thought she could hear the faintest sound of a voice rhythmically rising and falling. She assumed Fear must've begun quietly singing to himself. She held back a chuckle, she too would often sing while washing up. The more she got to know the emotions, the more she noticed how similar they were to herself.

She could tell when Fear moved out of the stream of water, as the sound went from bouncing off of his form to landing directly on the drain. She paced a tiny bit faster, knowing that he would soon call for her to help him back to the room. The sooner he finished, the sooner they could eat. Then they could scour the yard for yet another hidden creature. She wondered which one she would meet next. More importantly, she wondered how she would win them over.

If it was Sadness, she thought, then she'd probably require a shoulder to cry on. If it was Anger, maybe he would need to let out pent up stress and frustrations. If it was Joy, perhaps just by being happy to see her, she could connect with the little thing. These were all just guesses, however. Riley never would've guessed the key to Disgust would be something as silly as a shower. She knew that she would most likely not be able to predict what the creatures would need, and would have to figure it out when she found them.

Finally, Fear called out for Riley. She stopped mid stride, turned, and entered the bathroom once again. The purple creature stood at the corner of the counter, looking far more clean and put together, despite the fact that he couldn't really wash his clothes. His slender fingers quickly retied the mauve bow tie around his neck, giving it a quick pull to make sure it was tight and secure. He looked up at Riley and smiled. He hadn't looked as ecstatic about the shower as Disgust had, but he definitely looked grateful.

Riley offered her hand as a platform and gently carried Fear back to the room. She placed him on the floor, where he quickly found Disgust planted on his bed. Not at all bothered and not wanting to invade her personal space, he walked himself over to the space in front of the foam cut mattress and sat cross legged on the floor. He looked up at the lime emotion with a grin as she inspected her makeup using a compact mirror.

With the two clean and content, Riley left her room to tend with the mess in the bathroom. She quickly shut off the tap, as the emotions had been too small and weak to turn the heavy handle themselves. The three drops of goo she had left for them were smeared obviously from them dunking their hands in to scoop a use-able amount into their palms. Using the half damp tissue towels that were strewn across the counter, she wiped up the remnants of the soaps and such and tossed them in the wastebasket. She finally began to feel like she knew what her mother had through when rearing a young child. Except these creatures acted more like adults. Tiny adults who needed help with almost everything they did.

When she returned to her room, she could hear the conversation going on between the emotions. Disgust had asked Fear what he had told the young girl about them so far, to which the purple emotions responded simply with 'the basics'. He also mentioned that she knew of the existence of the other three and had an idea what they looked like, but had yet to met them. Neither Fear nor Disgust had any ideas where the others could've been.

Riley clapped her hands together. "Okay, you two." She announced, the creatures attentions suddenly on her. "I think I'm gonna go downstairs and have something to eat. Afterwards, I might have a job for you. Ready to head back down?" She immediately looked to Fear, knowing he had yet to eat and hoping he would mention it.

Sure enough, he enthusiastically nodded. "Yeah." He responded with a good amount of excitement in his voice. "D-do you think..." He rubbed his hands nervously. "Do you think I could have something, too..?"

The young girl kneeled down and placed her hand between the two seated figures. "Of course!" She smiled, glad he had taken the bait.

Fear's whole face lit up. Despite still not being a fan of this mode of transportation, he giddily rose to his feet and clamored aboard Riley's palm, taking a place near the center and reaching a hand out for his fellow emotion. Disgust snapped her tiny mirror shut and stood up, smoothing the wrinkles out of her dress before joining him in the girls grip.

Riley lifted the two carefully and made her way down the wooden stairs that creaked and groaned with every other step. Once at the bottom, she placed both creatures onto the table, a spot they were now growing used to, and skipped into the kitchen to make a sandwich.

The girl returned only moments later, a plate in one hand holding a ham and cheese sandwich. She sat at her usual chair, held the food firmly in both hands, and tore off a tiny piece. Though it appeared as less than a bite to herself, the bit of food was the size of a full sandwich for a creature as small as Fear. She handed this into his expectant lavender hands, and he happily accepted it, immediately tearing into it with his somewhat crooked teeth. Riley ripped a second piece off of the same size and handed it to Disgust.

The trio sat happily enjoying their meal. Fear had finally grown accustomed to eating, and was actually beginning to enjoy it. Disgust ate slower and with more control, glad that she was now well enough to feed herself once more. Riley, feeling like her head was just a little bit clearer, watched the others as she continued to munch her sandwich, paying particular attention to the green colored figure. She really hadn't had much time to interact with Disgust. She felt like she and Fear had already grown so close, but this new creature still seemed somewhat distant.

She had a few questions circling her mind about the dainty little person. She swallowed what was in her mouth and chose to break the ice. "So, I have a question for you." She placed her food down for a moment and rested her head on her hands.

Disgust looked up, green eyes shimmering with curiosity. "Yeah? What is it?"

"You're Disgust. My Disgust, right?" She tilted her head. "So you make me feel... Grossed out?"

The green emotion flicked her hair and smirked. "Well, yeah, that's part of it. But it's a lot more complicated." She puffed herself up slightly, feeling important. "I don't just let you know what's gross. I also help you know what's good. Picking your outfit for the day is one of my main duties. I have to make sure we don't wear anything tacky, and keep in mind that nothing clashes.

"When you're in public, I make sure you fit in. I know what's socially acceptable and what isn't. So while the others want to make you scream or shout or throw things in front of other people, I'm there to remind them that we are not trying to attract negative attention.

"But then, there is also the part of my job that is making you feel disgusted in its purest form. Foods that look bad, smell bad, and taste bad can easily be tainted and make you sick, so I make sure you steer clear of them. I admit that sometimes I can jump to conclusions..." She laughed, thinking about all the health foods she'd turned down in the past. She elbowed Fear playfully, who gave a nervous smile. "But like this one always says, 'it's better safe than sorry.'"

Riley, who had been listening intently, had picked up her sandwich and taken a few more bites while she took in the fascinating information the little creature had to say. She paused again, a new question on her mind. "So, how do you do it?" She asked. "How do you make me feel something?"

Fear, having finished his ration, fielded this question. "There's a big control panel." He responded, gesturing with his scrawny arms. "It's big enough for all five of us to stand there at once. On it are all sorts of buttons and switches and knobs. By using one or a combination of many, we can get you to feel and do almost anything."

Riley still didn't know how she felt about being controlled like a giant puppet of some sort, but she had another stronger thought on her mind. "So, wait." She put a hand to her forehead, trying to allow all this new information into her numbed head. "If it's all done by pressing buttons and stuff, why does there have to be five of you? Couldn't one just do everything?"

Finishing her tiny sandwich, Disgust shook her head. "The buttons are only the actions. We add an emotion to that action." She clasped her hands together. "Let me think of an example. Say... you were playing catch with a friend, right? If Joy pressed one specific button on the panel, you would playfully toss the ball to your friend. But then, if Anger pressed the same button, you would hurl the ball furiously at them instead. None of us can imitate each other either. No matter how hard I try, whenever I use the console, you're gonna act disgusted. Fear can't make you feel angry and Sadness can't make you feel happy. That's why you need all of us."

The young girl blinked. It all sounded so complicated. But she felt like she was slowly starting to understand. Her mind worked a lot differently than she had thought. Her school had had it all wrong. She wondered if she really was the only one being treated to this information. Maybe someone else out there had heard it, but when they tried to tell others, they got written off as a nut. It just was too crazy sounding. Little people in your head who tell you what to do and how to feel? No one would ever believe that!

As she ate the last bite of her ham sandwich, she realized that all three had finished. It was time to head outside. Riley, feeling her muted excitement cause her heart to race, stood up in an instant. "Alright!" She began. "Now for your job!"

Fear and Disgust exchanged a concerned and confused look, then focused their attention back on the girl.

"A while back, my cousin told me about a ring she saw outside late one night." She explained. "And since neither of you have been outside, I figure it has to be another one of you guys!"

The two emotions reacted immediately, their faces beaming with ecstatic smiles. Another piece to the puzzle, another of thier lost friends. They couldn't wait to see which of the remaining three emotions it was. Both bolted upright and ran over to Riley, waiting with baited breath for her hand to lower and take them on their adventure.

Matching their excitement, Riley quickly scooped the two up and bolted to the back door.

The little creatures hadn't ever been outside before. As they walked from the shade into the sun, they marveled at how warm it felt. The smell of the summer air hit them, the sounds of the birds clamoring into the tiny birdhouse that hung from a low branch in the only tree in the yard, the feeling of the warm wind blowing slowly on their skin. It was a whole new experience. Fear trembled slightly, Disgust watched the air closely for bugs, but mostly they just looked around, taking in the new scenery.

Riley wasn't nearly as impressed. Her old backyard had been a lot nicer. This yard was cramped, unremarkable, and slightly overgrown. All she cared about was finding this third emotion.

She took a few slow steps forward, scanning the grass for any signs of movement or color. "When we find them." She mumbled to the figures in her hand. "I'll have you convince them to come inside. They probably wont listen to me."

Before the creatures could respond, another voice cut in. It came from over the left side of the fence. Riley's neighbor, a kindly man somewhere in his sixties, was calling out a greeting to the young girl, waving one hand while the other gripped large hedge clippers. Riley, panicked that the man would see she was talking to tiny people, quickly stuffed the two creatures in her jeans pocket. She heard them emit sounds of terror at the unpredictable situation they were thrust in, but she had to ignore them. She couldn't let the man see them.

"Riley!" He leaned onto the fence with a chipper look on his face. "I haven't seen your father in a while. Where did he go to? The yard's looking a little worse for wear."

Riley tried to hold back her nervousness. "Uhh..." She searched for her words. "He-he's with my mom. They wont be back for another week or so."

The older man laughed, continuing to trim the hedges that lined his side of the fence. "Well, if he needs a hand with that yard when he comes back, tell him I can lend a hand." The man smiled. He was always very particular about his backyard. Flowers of every color sprang up in his garden every spring, and every autumn his apple tree would bear fruit. Or so he claimed. Riley hadn't been living there long enough to really know, but judging by the amount of work that he put into the yard, it was probably all true.

But Riley knew that if he was outside trimming the hedges, he would be there for another few hours. She felt slightly annoyed as well as disappointed. There was no way she could go searching the grass with him just beyond the fence. If he thought for a second that she was looking for pests, he would have a poison down the next day to protect his precious plants. And if Riley came across the emotion and they started yelling, he would no doubt try and come to the young girls aid. Her search would have to wait.

"I will." She forced a happy face. "How-how's Chips doing?"

"Oh, fine!" The older man was always glad to hear when people liked his cat as much as he did. "The other day he was chasing after some weird looking little thing. I didn't really see it, but I swear it almost looked like it was running on two legs."

Riley felt her blood go cold. The cat hadn't been hunting the emotion, had it? "What color was it?" She almost shouted.

The neighbor laughed. "Black." He responded. "Jet black. I've never seen a thing like it before in my life." The girl felt relieved. None of the emotions Fear had drawn had been black. She decided it must've been unrelated. At least, she hoped it was.

She gave a quick farewell and retreated back into the house. Once the heavy door was shut, she pulled the little creatures back out of her pocket. Disgust had a look of horror on her face as she quickly brushed herself off and straightened her hair and dress. Fear coughed up a piece of lint, which made the green emotion yelp.

"I'm sorry!" Riley set the creatures back on the table. "I didn't know he'd be out there."

Fear continued to cough. Disgust shot a glare at the young girl. "Well, next time warn me before you throw me into the pit of dust and darkness!" She growled.

Riley sighed. "I guess we'll have to wait to search the yard." She groaned. "I just hope that emotion's still out there."


	14. The Storm

Riley glimpsed once again out the screen door, as she had done every ten minutes for what felt like forever. Sure enough, her lawn loving neighbor was still out there, tending to his plants and picking out any weeds that had weaseled their way into his flower beds. Riley growled to herself. He had been out there for so long. He had to run out of things to do, she thought. He had already done so much.

She had waited impatiently while he trimmed his hedges, aerated the soil, snipped the flower buds, watered the hanging baskets... She wondered if the man had a life outside those plants of his. She had never really noticed before how long he spent working on his yard in a single day. It was only now that she wanted him gone that he seemed to continued to linger.

Frustrated, she trudged back over to the living room. The emotions, who had been waiting for her on the couch, looked up at the young girl. But upon seeing the frustration in her eyes, they turned away. They didn't have to ask to know the answer. The man hadn't budged. They would have to keep waiting.

Riley had turned the television on for the two creatures. She felt the need to keep them entertained, but there wasn't much they could do being so small. They had watched a few shows with mild interest, but as time wore on, they got more and more antsy to get outside and find their next coworker.

Fear in particular was done waiting. He was worried. Both he and Disgust had been found in such a critical state. What if the emotion outside was even worse? He and the green emotion had been lucky enough to land inside. Both had, at some point, stumbled upon sustenance themselves. But there was no pantry outside. The only clear food source out there was the neighbors apple tree, and it would be another few months before it bore any fruit. Fear began to wonder if it was possible for emotions to die, and if their bodies emitted the painful rings after death. The thought began to make him feel sick, and he tried to focus instead on the tv. But it was too late. All he could do was sit there and mentally imagine a world where Riley had only himself and Disgust. Images of his other friends lifeless bodies flashed through his mind. He tried his best to control his shivering.

Disgust was getting worried, too. But she managed to keep her hopes up. After all, she thought, worrying wasn't going to help anything. And even if it did, she knew Fear already had it covered. Still, she was starting to get annoyed that they couldn't just go out and check already. She hated the tension hanging in the air. She wished that the man would just go inside, as if somehow she could will the neighbor away from his garden.

Irritated, the young girl paced back and forth across the living room floor, not even realizing she was walking right in front of the tv. The emotions didn't really care, though. They dealt with the intermittent obstruction without complaints, they weren't really that invested in the show. To them, it was just about waiting.

After another ten minutes had passed, Riley returned once again to the screen door, expecting to see more or less the same scene yet again. But to her surprise, the man was gone. She thought perhaps he had just briefly moved out of sight, as she had been fooled before. However, all his tools were absent as well. His wheelbarrow, trowel, clippers, and giant bag of plant food had vanished. The heavy door behind his screen one was shut and locked. Riley breathed a sigh of relief and excitement. It was time to check the yard.

She raced back to the next room with her heart pounding. The loud crescendo of her approaching footsteps startled the tiny creatures, but when they met her smile they knew it was good news. Happy the wait was over and excited to find their next emotion, the two hopped to their feet, prepared to be whisked away.

In one fell swoop, Riley scooped the duo up and made a u-turn back to the door. She kicked the screen open, dashing out as it shut, noting the strange clunking sound it made but choosing to ignore it in favor of the hunt.

This time, though, the emotions weren't treated to the same scenario. The sun hadn't shined on them as the exited. The warm breeze had cooled significantly. The trio hadn't realized how long they had been indoors, but they could imagine why the elder gentleman had retreated. Heavy grey clouds covered the once blue sky, making it appear almost as dark as night.

Riley, who before this incident had been mildly nervous about thunderstorms, knew that rain would fall soon. The normal her would've been concerned and scared about the approaching lightning, but this numbed her cared only about the missing creature. She decided to use what dwindling time they had to search. She stepped out into the center of the backyard.

Fear and Disgust were placed in the uneven grass. "Okay." Riley called down to them as she began to walk towards the shed. "You two spread out and look for them. I'll see if they arent in here."

The two emotions looked quickly at each other, then began to walk in two different directions. Fear made his way closer to the only tree while Disgust wandered towards the fence shared with the friendly neighbor. Riley pulled the old shed door open with a yank, expelling a puff of dust from within the tiny and jam packed room.

All three shouted to the unknown lost emotion, testing the different names it may have responded to.

"Joy?"

"Sadness?"

"Anger! Sadness! Joy!

"Anger?"

"Joy!"

All three explorers tried all three names multiple times.

Suddenly, as if somewhere a switch had been thrown, the storm began. With absolutely no warning, a bolt of lightning shot down from the black clouds, reaching out with glowing claws and striking the top of another neighbors dried, sickly tree. The dead leaves and sapless sticks mixed with the intensity of the electricity and sparked a small fire, that burned for only a few moments before the sudden downpour of rain extinguished it in a puff of smoke.

Startled by the explosively loud thunder clap, Riley decided that the search would once again have to wait. She slammed the shed shut and ran to collect the creatures as the rain picked up. She went towards Disgust first, knowing that she would most likely hate to get wet. She sped over, scooped up the tiny green figure, and protected her beneath her fingers. She turned to face Fear.

He had frozen.

He stood like a tiny statue, not even a shiver to make his body move. His glassy eyes were open wider than she had thought possible, despite the rain that that fell right in them. The appendage on his head stood straight up in an insane zig-zagging pattern, almost mimicking the shape of the lightning bolt that struck moments earlier. The smell of the smoke hit his nostrils, and his pupils constricted to pinpoints. His hands clenched, his muscles tightened, his body began to shake violently.

He began to scream.

It wasn't like the other yelps and shouts he had made while in Riley's presence. It wasn't a reaction of being startled or being worried. This was a shout of pure terror. It sounded less like he had been frightened by a lightning bolt or fire, but like he was experiencing some ungodly horror. The scream was deeply unsettling not only to Riley, but to Disgust, who had never once heard him emit such a terrifying sound.

When he ran out of air, he simply took in another breath and screeched again. And again. Riley, who had stopped momentarily when he had made the first sound, now dashed over to the insanely panicked creature. But before she was anywhere near, he took off. He bolted back towards the house, emitting that same screech with every exhale, screaming off at speeds he had never been capable of achieving before.

"Fear! Wait!" Riley had to scream to be heard over his horrible sounds.

"I DIDN'T MEAN IT." He screamed back, not really in response but as if he was talking to some unseen person. "THE FIRE IS BURNING. YOU NEVER LISTEN. IT'S TOO STRONG, IT HURTS. THE FIRE IS BURNING."

The girl could feel the little green creature in her hand grasping onto her flesh with every last ounce of strength, truly horrified at her coworkers sudden and insane outburst. Though thankful the wordless screeching had ceased, he was now spouting bizarre sentences that made almost no sense. He screamed them repeatedly like a broken record, each time with the same tone and inflection and each time at full volume.

"YOU NEVER LISTEN. I DIDN'T MEAN IT. I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING. THE FIRE IS BURNING. I'M SORRY, I'M SO SORRY."

Though she ran as fast as her legs could carry her, the insane energy of the being of pure panic made him impossible to catch. As her eyes tracked him racing his way to the house, she could see that the screen door looked off. She realized that the clunking sound the screen door had made was due to the frame catching on a rock, leaving a small crack as an entrance to the house. Fear blindly barreled his way through, screaming his way into the house like a madman.

Panicked about the creatures safety, Riley stayed hot on his heels. She was only moments behind, almost crashing into the side of the building. Flinging the screen door open for her and the companion gripped in one hand, she darted into the house and scanned the floor for the purple figure. But Fear was already out of sight. Though they couldn't see him, they could still hear him, screeching like his life depended on it. Taking only a split second to listen, Disgust pointed a lime green hand towards the living room and the source of the sound, and Riley ran that way.

But just as she did, just as she passed the front door, her ears caught another sound. It was the sound of an ancient car rumbling its way into the driveway.

Gasping, she whipped her head around to the clock. To her horror, she had completely lost track of time. It was already 5. Her cousin was home, and Fear was screaming, uncontrollable, and nowhere to be seen.


	15. The Unseen Inferno

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember that you are welcome to link to this story from other websites. You may also feel free to illustrate the story. Just be sure to give me a heads up. If you post an illustration, I will link to it in the corresponding chapter. Thanks!

Riley had always hated the sound of her cousins decrepit car, especially when she was inside it. It whined, rattled, and sounded like a single crack in the road could cause the entire machine to collapse into a million little pieces. And it was loud. When she was little, she always knew when the baby sitter had arrived. She could hear the beastly engine roaring from a few blocks down the street. But as much as she disliked that noisy engine, she never hated hearing it more than she did now.

Now was the absolute worst time for her cousin to come home. Not only was there an emotion loose in the house, but he had lost all his common sense, screeching at the top of his lungs with every breath. When he had previously been hiding in the shadows before Riley had managed to capture him, her cousin hadn't even noticed the little lavender figure living behind the furniture and creeping through the darkness. But all his stealthiness had been thrown out the window, obliterated by a single lightning bolt. He had no idea what danger he was putting himself into by running and screaming his way through the house. He was too focused on some invisible force, shouting about things like fires that did not exist.

As well as the escaped insane wreck of an emotion, there was Disgust. How would the older girl react when she came in seeing a tiny green person sitting in Riley's hand? Somehow, Riley had to catch the one emotion and hide the other before her cousin saw them and called her parents, or worse, the police.

Even with his tiny forms tiny voice, Fear was still clearly audible throughout the entire house. The young girl, not having any idea where he could be, didn't have time to play hide and seek before her cousin burst in. Instead, a different idea hit her. She bolted quickly to the tv, which the three had left on during their adventure outside, and slammed a finger on the 'volume plus' button. She watched tensely as the green indicator on the television screen climbed from 16 to 42, filling the whole house with the blaring cartoony sounds of the animated escapades of a cat and mouse. Disgust put her hands over the sides of her head and winced. This noise more than drowned out the tiny emotions howling, which while it would make it harder to find him, it would also keep him hidden from any others entering the building.

With the sound barrier up, Riley cupped her hands tightly around the still grimacing creature in her grip, then sped up the stairs at light speed, shoulder slamming her way into her room. She half threw the poor Disgust emotion onto her bed, shouting a rushed apology before turning tail and zooming back out the door, kicking the door shut behind her. Disgust, dizzy, sore and still trying to take in what had just happened, sat on the bed trying to catch her breath.

Riley practically flew back down the stairs, launching herself into the couch only seconds before the door knob began to turn.

The heavy front door creaked open slowly, Riley's older cousin trudging in behind it. Her eyes were lined with dark black circles, she was drenched in the pouring rain water, her head was throbbing, and she was just plain exhausted. These were always the busiest days of the work week, no matter how many people there were on staff. All she wanted to do was relax. But as she entered the little building, she was greeted by a deafening blast from the tvs speakers. Her head pulsated in pain with every note that crackled out the surround sound, and she clenched her teeth in agony.

"Riley!" She had to scream to be heard over the noise, which only made her headache worse. "What on Earth are you doing?!"

Riley tried to think up an excuse, but her numb mind drew nothing but blanks. "I'm..." She wheezed, trying to come up with anything. "I'm... Watching tv."

Her cousin, feeling like a vice was tightening its grip on her skull, stumbled into the living room to see what was going on. She examined her young relative through squinting eyes, and saw that she was panting and soaked with sweat. She thought she could even see her shivering. Confused and slightly alarmed, the older girl looked over the rest of the room, wondering why Riley was in such an exhausted and obviously unnerved state. Her gaze eventually fell on the window, and she exhaled a sound of understanding.

"I get it..." She mumbled to herself. "You're afraid of the storm, aren't you?"

Riley, having almost completely forgotten about the weather during the emotional chaos, turned to also glimpse at the window. The rain was pouring down in buckets, lightning illuminated the clouds in random flashes. Wind tore through the trees in the neighborhood, a street sign on the other side of the road appearing as though it were about to take flight in the 60 mile per hour gusts. Had her Fear been in her head and not tearing through the house like a maniac, she probably would've been terrified by the storm.

"I... I..." Riley tried to build off of her cousins assumptions. "I turned up the tv to drown out the sounds of the thunder." She panted. "I'm okay as long as I don't hear it."

Her cousin appeared to believe the false explanation, and nodded sympathetically. "You didn't need me to sit with you or anything, did you?" She asked, trying to be a supportive figure to her young relative.

"No!" Riley accidentally shouted, then repeated at a normal volume. "No. I'm okay, really. I'll just watch tv until it passes."

The older girl put a hand to her forehead. "Good." She sighed. "I don't think I could take watching television at this volume anyway." She began to awkwardly shuffle towards the staircase, putting a hand on the railing before turning one last time to the girl on the couch. "I'm really sorry, Riley, but I don't feel much like cooking right now. My head is killing me. I think I'll take a nap for a little bit and make dinner after the storm moves outta here."

"That's fine! That's fine." Riley answered quickly, waiting impatiently for her to just go to the bedroom already. Her cousin turned back around with a heavy exhale, then finally began to climb the stairs. But as she placed her foot on the fourth step, Riley saw Fear dart from underneath the couch to the shadow below the tv stand, screaming something incoherent that was only barely audible above the noise of the cartoon. Riley's cousin froze, turning again to the younger girl.

"What's that?" She asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"N-nothing! Just the tv!" Riley could feel the sweat drip down her face.

Thankfully, the older girl was far too tired to argue, and continued up to the second floor before disappearing into the master bedroom.

The instant she heard the door click shut, Riley was on her feet. While frustrated that Fear had decided to make his entrance while her cousin was still present, it had given her a quick glimpse at where he was headed. The young girl was pretty sure she knew where he was going to hide. Before he could make any further moves, she dove forward under the tv stand, slamming her hand around in the darkness, searching for the open panel. Sure enough, her hand easily slipped into a hidden crevasse, still filled with dust and fiber debris. Nestled in the junk was a writhing creature, screaming so loud she could feel the vibrations of his voice through her skin.

She made a quick grab at the emotion, but his insane movements made him slip through her grasp and back into the hiding place. As he attempted to vault over her hand and back to the floor, she managed to make a second grab, wrapping all her digits firmly around his middle, pinning his arms to his sides. He was secure. She removed her hand from beneath the stand.

Fear had not stopped screaming. His eyes weren't even focused on Riley when she held him up to her face. It was as if he was lost in another world, she almost thought it looked like he didn't realize he was being held. He just continued to spout meaningless sentences, matching the volume of the blaring tv.

"THE FIRE." He screeched again. "THE FIRE IS BURNING. I DIDN'T MEAN TO. WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE."

"Fear!" She had to compete with the volume of the creature and the cartoon. "Stop screaming!"

His facial expression didn't change, remaining in a frozen look of horror. "YOU NEVER LISTEN. WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE. IT'S TOO STRONG, IT HURTS."

She jammed a finger into his face, holding his jaw shut. But he continued to scream through closed lips, only slightly muffled. "Fear, please!" She could feel tears of stress and concern forming in her eyes. "Please stop!"

But it was no use. He wasn't even hearing a single word she said. He had no idea she was even there. Riley tried to fight it, but she began to cry. Even though her mind had been muted, she was so scared about the poor little creature she had grown attached too. She was terrified that he was hurting himself, and wondered if he would ever snap out of it. "Please." She could no longer bring her voice to a shout. "You're okay, Fear. I promise. Please stop screaming."

She moved her finger to check if anything had changed. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO. IT'S THE ONLY WAY. THE FIRE IS BURNING. I CAN'T SEE ANYTHING."

Riley had only one option. She would have to go to the only person she had found who knew more about the emotion. But Disgust was upstairs. She couldn't leave Fear downstairs to go retrieve her. There was no way he would remain in one spot. The instant she set him down, he would be off, screaming and running away from invisible threats. But could she bring him to the second floor? He was still bellowing at the top of his lungs. She could only somewhat quiet him by holding his mouth shut. Would that be enough to prevent her cousin from hearing him?

Out of ideas and out of time to stand around wondering, Riley decided she would have to risk bringing him along. She hoped that between the tv being cranked, her muffling his voice, and the 'sleepy cd' her cousin always put on to nap, her cousin would be unable to hear the screeching.

Returning the finger to the figures face, she took her chances and raced up the stairs. She zoomed into her bedroom, remembering at the last second not to slam the door shut. Inside, she saw that Disgust had moved to the corner of the bed closest to the door, and was watching with great anxiety to see what was happening with her former coworker. But before she did anything with either emotion, Riley ran to her bed, grabbed a pillow, and jammed it as far into the crack beneath the door as she could.

Still holding his mouth, Riley held Fear closer to Disgust. "He wont stop!" She cried, tears flowing freely down her face. "How-How do we calm him down?"

Disgust took a long look at Fear. His eyes were unfocused and off kilter, his light flecks that made his skin burning brighter than ever, and he was still attempting to scream through the barrier on his mouth. She had seen him during his panic attacks, but they had never been anywhere near as intense as this.

Disgust took a few steps back. "Put him down here!" She pointed to the space in front of her on the bed. "I have to see him up close!"

Riley hesitated. Putting him down meant moving her finger. But what else could she do? Disgust seemed to have a plan, and she had no one else to put her faith in. So she obliged, placing Fear in front of her. She tried to stand him up, but his legs didn't bear any of his weight and he flopped onto his back, screaming without restriction.

Disgust ran up to him, grabbing him by the shoulders and lifting him, though his neck gave his head no support and his head hung with his mouth agape. She shook him hard, adrenaline giving her muscles extra strength. "Fear!" She shouted. "Fear you have to snap out of it! The fire's not burning!"

"Th-The THE FIRE." For the first time, his stutter seemed to return, if only briefly. "THE FIRE IS BURNING. IT'S OUR ONLY OPTION."

The green emotion ignored his further screaming and threw the other figure back down. She ran around his fallen body and sat down, pushing on the back of his head to lift it up the bed. His hair-like antennae, despite his insane outburst, was in it's resting curl. She grabbed it with her free hand, twisted it around her wrist, then pulled back on it with all her might.

Fear let out a wordless screech, three octaves higher than the sounds he had previously emitted. This screech contained not only the tone of sheer horror, but had an element of pain hidden inside it. But Disgust continued to tug at full strength despite his scream. Riley held her breath, hoping her cousin wasn't hearing this.

Eventually, Fear's eyelids began to flutter. His screaming began to quiet, his muscles began to relax. Finally, his eyes rolled backwards. He passed out, falling completely silent. Disgust released him from her grip, laying him gently back down.

Riley breathed again, not even noticing the stream of tears that had fallen down her cheeks. "Is..." She sobbed quietly. "Is he okay?"

Disgust sat back and sighed, looking over Fear's unconscious form. "We'll see." She mumbled. "He wont be awake again for a while. When he get's up, we'll know."


	16. A Forced Silence

The fire is burning.

That had been the sentence that stood out the most during Fear's insane outburst, no doubt triggered by the short lived fire on the tree top. But the fire had been doused mere seconds after being set alight, posing no threat to anyone or anything. This couldn't have been the same fire that Fear was seeing as he raced his way through the house, screaming like a banshee. No, Riley knew Fear was seeing something else altogether, reliving some nightmare that had been lying dormant in his thoughts. She tried to figure out what it was; tried to piece together the whole story from the fragments he had recited. But all she knew was that he was blinded, in pain, and a raging fire was about to claim his life.

Riley continued to ponder over the shards of the riddle as she sat in her room. She and Disgust had been silent since Fear had lost consciousness, sitting in the poorly lit room occasionally illuminated by the frequent lightning strikes beyond the window. Along with the loud applause of the thunderclaps, they could also still hear the tv blaring inane commercials from the floor below. It had worked well in drowning out the screams; Riley's cousin hadn't reacted, even when Fear let out the blood curdling scream that ended with his losing consciousness. The young girl decided to wait until the storm had subsided before turning off the televisions constant noise, as her cousin still believed the thunder was the reason she turned it on in the first place.

As they waited for the squall to pass, they watched over the purple figure. He laid silently, sprawled across the bed from when Disgust had tossed him backwards onto it. His breathing seemed less like that of a sleeping person, and more like the forced, sudden gasping one would expect to see from someone in a deep coma. Both hoped the incident hadn't harmed anything inside him. Both prayed that when he awoke, he would be back to his normal self. And both had that recurring awful thought that they tried to push out of their minds; the thought that he may never wake again.

Thankfully, the storm outside had been mercifully short. They had only been sitting for a few minutes when the first beams of sunset had begun to pierce the dark grey clouds. The rain had finally come to an end, the only water still falling was what had been caught by the trees and houses that now slowly dripped down in heavy drops. The roaring bursts of thunder had been hushed to a distant rumble, being replaced by the sounds of birds celebrating the rains end.

When it was clear the storm was gone, Riley rose to her feet. With the utmost care, she gently scooped up the lavender creature and placed him in his own tiny bed. The cotton ball pillow supported his head, opening his airways and making his breathing a little less forced. She also moved Disgust to the floor, placing her just beside the sea foam green mattress. The green emotion would keep watch while the young girl briefly left the room.

Somberly making her way to the first floor, Riley turned off the tv. She hadn't realized just how grating the deafening noise had been until it was gone. She sighed, her mind nothing but a worried mess. But she had to stay focused. She still had one conscious emotion that needed care. And she couldn't forget the creature outside. That is, she thought, if it had survived the storm. Riley hoped the poor thing had found shelter. If it hadn't, there was no way it could've survived.

She slipped into the kitchen to grab a few crackers. She didn't know how long it would be before her cousin actually made dinner. Her cousins naps could last anywhere between 1 to 10 hours. There was no guarantee she would even be up again before morning.

Riley slowly climbed the steps and made her way to the hallway closet, once again retrieving all the necessary items to make a tiny emotion-sized bed. She brought these and the food she had procured into the bedroom with her, gently shutting the door behind.

Disgust was leaned over Fear's bed, gently stroking one of his hands. Riley could see that the green emotion had tucked her coworker in; his tissue sheets had been pulled up to his armpits, his cotton ball pillows fluffed. She had even removed his little black shoes, which now sat next to the foot of the mattress.

The young girl leaned down and handed Disgust a piece of one of the crackers, which despite not feeling particularly hungry, she accepted, knowing that it would be too difficult to have two emotions out of commission. She sat down on the floor next to Fear's bed and slowly began to eat, all the while maintaining eye contact with her fallen colleague. Riley quickly piled the various objects onto each other, completing a second mini-bed which she placed between the first and her own normal sized mattress.

Leaving the room only momentarily to change into pajamas, Riley returned and sat on the bed with the rest of the crackers. She watched Fear's struggled breaths and exhaled slowly.

"How long will he be out?" Her voice cut through the silence.

Disgust looked up at her with those shimmering green eyes. "At least a few hours. He takes some time to wake up after that."

Riley quickly crunched down the small amount of food she had brought with her. "How did you know..." She asked, pantomiming herself pulling on the hairs on the back of her head as Disgust had done to Fear. "How did you know that would work?"

The green emotion sighed, looking back down at Fear. "It's just something that we've all known about for a while, the other emotions and I." She murmured. "None of us really know for sure what that thing on his head is. But it's highly sensitive. And if you pull on it a certain way, he falls unconscious and doesn't wake up for hours. When he does come to, he never remembers what happened before, so he doesn't even know we can do it to him."

"How did you go about figuring something like that out?" Riley grimaced, picturing them ganging up on the poor spindly coward.

"It was actually his fault." Disgust barely mustered a laugh, remembering the escapade. "He was in a panic about something, he ran around like an idiot, and he wound up getting it caught on something. Because he was still panicking, he kept on pulling, trying to get away. Eventually he started to act really sleepy, and then.." She shrugged. "He hit the floor."

Satisfied with the answer, Riley nodded her head and looked at the unconscious lavender creature. "So he won't remember any of this?"

Disgust folded her arms. "Well..." She mumbled, sounding unsure. "He's never been that bad. Ever. So I don't really know..."

It wasn't until almost eight thirty when Riley's cousin finally sprung to life. Her younger relative could hear her get up and make her way down the stairs, rambling something about not meaning to sleep that long and how her Aunt and Uncle would be furious if they knew she did that.

Riley had met her cousin down at the kitchen, leaving Disgust with the still unconscious Fear, where the older girl was hastily throwing together cheap macaroni and cheese. She apologized for being asleep for so long, but it really hadn't mattered to the younger girl. She had been preoccupied. To pass the time while keeping an eye on the creature, she had opened her book once more. She was actually able to read it this time, though there were times when her thoughts began to drift to the lavender figure, and she would have to read a paragraph twice to refocus.

The two ate their meals in near silence. As she took her plate to the sink, Riley had sneakily swiped two extra noodles, just in case either of the emotions got hungry over night. Then, mentioning something about being more tired than usual, she had sprung back up the steps and retreated back into the bedroom.

As Riley pulled the door shut, she did a bit of a double take, looking closely at the creatures on the floor. To her surprise, Fear had awoken, and was sitting up in his bed, still half covered by the sheets. Disgust was sitting on top of her own mattress. Both had looked to Riley when she had entered.

"You're awake?" Riley asked with a hint of relief in her voice.

"Y-yeah." Fear responded with his usual stutter, rubbing the back of his neck. "I... guess I fell asleep?"

Disgust nodded with great exaggeration. "Oh yeah! Out like a light! You must've been really tired!" She chirped like a bad actress.

Riley missed her cue. "But..." She mumbled, sitting down on the floor in front of them. "What about the whole thing with the fi-"

"Ah-ah-ah!" Disgust turned quickly to Riley making repeated slashing motions across her neck, trying to stop the girl before she said anything that could act as a trigger.

"The...what?" Fear tilted his head, sounding equal parts confused and fatigued.

Noticing the negative reaction she had received from Disgust, who was now glaring daggers into her very soul, Riley quickly changed the conversation. "I-uh... Um..." She held up the noodles with an awkward forced smile. "Who's hungry?"

Fear's eyes immediately shined brightly. "I-I am..!" He tried to keep himself from shouting. The severe panic attack he had suffered had drained nearly all of his energy, leaving him starving and ravenous.

Riley was slightly taken aback by his intense reaction, but was happy to see him acting more like his normal self. He held his arms up expectantly, waiting for Riley to hand him life giving sustenance. She obliged, placing the slimy orange noodle in his fingers, and he immediately began to devour it. She also offered one to Disgust, who turned it down with a wave of her hand.

In what seemed like no time at all, he had scarfed the lone noodle, and sat back against his pillows licking his long, slender fingers, much to Disgust's dismay. He sighed, satisfied, and began to nestle himself back down into his bed. "So, who was outside?" He asked, suddenly remembering some of the events from earlier and getting excited.

Disgust kicked her tiny pink shoes off. "Don't know." She replied, laying herself down in her own tiny bed. "We didn't find them. We had to stop searching when the storm came."

The lavender figure shot back up in his bed. "Storm!?" He repeated, a shiver washing over his slender body. "How do you know they're alright!?"

Riley had to remind herself that the worried creature wasn't joking. He honestly had no idea a storm had ever rolled in. All his memory past going outside had been wiped. Riley found this frustrating. She began to settle herself down in her own bed, grumbling silently to herself. She had spent so much time trying to unravel the mystery of the maniacs rambling, and now it seemed she would never get any answers.

"We don't." Disgust layed her head back against a pillow, finding herself comfortable for the first time in too long. "We'll just have to check tomorrow."

Fear's eyebrows dropped, heavy with worry and concern. He laid down once again, bright eyes gazing at the glowing plastic stars upon the ceiling. All he could do was hope that his lost coworker would be alright by tomorrow morning.

Riley could see the concern in the tiny figures face. "Don't worry." She mumbled, reaching a hand out to the lamp on the nightstand. "We'll go search for them first thing tomorrow after my cousin leaves."

Fear sighed, and Riley flipped the light off, blanketing the trio in darkness. They nestled further into their respective beds, exchanging good nights to each other before shutting their eyes and waiting for sleep. But sleep was elusive. All three had the same concern on their mind. Could a tiny figure like that really have survived such a cruel storm?

Their thoughts kept them up for hours. When it finally felt like they were about to drift off, the time hit 10:59. Disgust and Fear immediately responded with a gasp of pain as the ritual started once again. They writhed in pain, their bodies heating to extreme temperatures, unable to stop what had begun.

Riley could hear the two begin to make pained sounds of agony. She bolted upright with a sudden realization, leaping to her feet in the darkness and slamming her body against the window. She cupped her hands on the cold glass, gazing into the world beyond.

Meanwhile, the pain in the two emotions got worse, until the clock finally flipped over and they emitted the rings of colored light, which once again struck each other to form the third, brighter ring. But they weren't watching. They laid in their beds, exhausted, panting, relieved that it was over.

But just above their heads, the young girl let out a gasp. She spun around fast to the two emotions, now sitting up in their makeshift beds, gazing at her with a look of confusion.

Even in the darkness, they could see her smile in return. "In the backyard!" She grinned. "It's still there!"


	17. Great Outdoors

It was just around nine when the young girl awoke. She was greeted by a beautiful day out her bedroom window. The sun was shining brightly, the dew dropped grass twinkling in it's light. The air was filled with the sounds of birds in song as they welcomed the new day, the storm the night before all but forgotten. Riley smiled as she studied the sapphire sky. Today would be the perfect day to search for the creature outside.

She had had quite a bit of difficulty getting to sleep the night before. Ever since she realized the emotion outside was okay, her mind had been kept awake with thoughts of meeting it. She not only wondered who of the three still unaccounted for it was, but what new information they possessed. Perhaps she would finally be able to return the emotions she had found to her head. Maybe then she could finally start to feel like her old self again.

She sat up in bed, stretching her achy joints. She didn't usually sleep in this late. Then again, she was up a lot later than normal. She was surprised her cousin hadn't come to wake her. The older girl usually told her relative when she was leaving for work. But by this time, her cousin must've already left for the day. Deciding not to give it another thought, she turned her gaze toward the floor and the two tiny beds beside her own.

The little emotions were still asleep, curled up tight in their tissue covers. Disgust had a single green arm draped across her face, shielding her eyes from the light that shone through the window. Fear had grabbed one of his cotton ball pillows sometime during the night and was now clutching it to his chest like a child with a stuffed animal. The faintest sounds of snoring rose from both of their bodies. Riley couldn't help but smile.

The young girl reached a hand out and gently prodded Fear's shoulder with one finger. "Hey." She spoke in a loud whisper. "Come on. Time to get up."

His lavender eyelids twitched before opening slightly, revealing only a tiny sliver of his huge bright eyes. He studied the girls face for a moment, then opened his mouth wide in a yawn, revealing all of his awkwardly spaced teeth. As he stretched his arms in front of him, he flipped the corners of his lips up into a tiny, tired grin.

"Good morning." He mumbled into his pillow, sounding cheery despite his fatigue. It was good to see him wake up in such a positive mood, the girl thought. Especially given how hard the day before had been for him.

"Ready to go outside again?" Riley asked, tossing her covers off and slowly standing herself on the floor.

Fear instantly snapped to attention, all his exhaustion vanishing at once. His eyes opened wide and he threw the cotton ball from his arms as he shot up on his feet. "Right!" He responded, jamming his feet into his little black shoes. It was as if he had totally forgotten that there was a coworker waiting for them just beyond the back door.

Riley glanced once more out the window. Last night, she had experienced some worried thoughts about bringing Fear outside with her again. But the sky was completely devoid of clouds. There was no way another storm would strike anytime soon. She hoped that meant that the fearful creature was safe from having a second outburst. After all, she thought, it was the smell of fire that set him off. As long as she kept him away from smoke, he should be fine.

They were only missing one member of their search trio. Riley walked across the wood floor and kneeled down in front of the still sleeping figure. She pressed a few fingers on the foam mattress.

"Disgust? Wake up." She chirped in a chipper tone.

The green emotion's face twisted and she pulled a tissue over her face, emitting a quiet growl. Riley turned to Fear, who giggled. This, he knew, was perfectly normal. Trying a second time, Riley pushed on the tiny emotion, this time applying a tad more pressure.

"Disgust! Come on! We have to find the emotion fast!"

The mention of their rescue mission was all it took to change her attitude. She threw off her covers and sat up, pausing only briefly to quickly fix her hair. "What time is it?" She asked, rising to her feet.

Riley put a hand palm-up on the floor. "It's a little past nine." The young girl explained as the emotions carefully centered themselves in her hand. "My cousin should have just left for work, so we can go out and search for them right now!"

With the creatures in hand, she flew out the door and onto the steps. But before she had crossed step four, she noticed something. It was the sound of a monotone news caster droning on about some recent political debate emanating from the television. Riley peeked under the banister into the living room below. Sure enough, seated on the couch was the golden haired older girl, still dressed in her pastel pink pajamas, typing away on the tiny keyboard on her phone. Riley gasped and backed up so as not to be noticed. What was her cousin still doing here?

"What's going on?" Disgust whispered, noticing the girls sudden change in behavior.

Riley looked to the figures in her hand with a worried and confused face. "It's my cousin!" She whispered back.

"I thought you said she was at work!" Fear whined with worry.

The young girl took a moment to think, rewriting her plans to fit the new situation. "Okay, I'll take you two into the kitchen..." She plotted. "Then I'll go ask her what's going on."

Before the emotions had time to give their input, Riley had started back down the steps again, keeping her hand obscured from her cousins line of sight. She quietly slinked into the kitchen, setting the creatures on the counter top, where Fear immediately led Disgust by the wrist to the shadow behind a loaf of bread. Riley smirked. Fear knew how to hide. She knew the two of them would be safe.

She pranced into the living room acting nonchalant. "Good morning." She greeted her cousin, who didn't even lift her gaze from the tiny screen in her hands. "What are you still doing here?"

The older girl chuckled, finishing her text and tossing the device on the couch beside her. "What do you mean?" She laughed. "It's Saturday, remember? I finally get a break." She leaned further back into the plush seat as if to emphasize her point.

Riley mentally slapped herself. Of course! With all the recent craziness, she had completely lost track of the day of the week. This totally destroyed any plans for the day she may have had. There was no way a search team could operate with a constant guard wandering the house, could there?

Just then, the older girls phone buzzed, and she reached a lazy hand out to retrieve it. Riley smiled. Maybe there was still a way!

"I'm gonna go grab some breakfast." Riley lied. Her cousin only nodded in response as she began to type once more, allowing Riley to slip into the kitchen again. Once out of sight, she moved the bread loaf and gazed at the emotions who had been hiding just behind it.

"Alright, here's the new plan." She smiled, proud of her own resourcefulness. She picked the two up, then moved over to the kitchen table, picking up her own clunky phone that she had left there the night before. It wasn't as advanced as her cousin's shiny new model, but it had just the tools they would need for the mission.

"You two..." She continued, walking to the back door. "Are going out alone. After all, the emotion would be scared of me anyway. I will stay in here and hang out with my cousin. When you find them, you give me the signal."

Fear rubbed his hands together nervously. "The signal?" He repeated.

Riley smiled, waking up her phone and navigating the menus to reach the ringtone selection. She held the screen at an angle where the tiny creatures could see it. "When you're ready, just press this button to wake it up." She explained, demonstrating with her thumb. "Then press here to pick this ring. My cell phone will play the same ringtone as when my friend calls. Then I can use it as the perfect excuse to come back in here, pick you up, and head back to my room! Sound good?"

Disgust and Fear looked at each other, than back up at Riley with a nod.

They were ready to go.

Riley placed her phone on the floor just beside the back door. As quietly as she possibly could, she unlocked and opened the door just enough to get her hand on the screen behind it. This door was also opened, and Riley quickly stuck a hand outside, grabbed a small rock, and wedged it in the screen to hold it open. Finally, she set the two emotions on the ground, who gave Riley one last glance before heading out into the open air of the outdoors. The young girl made her way back to the living room to sit with her cousin and watch tv.

Fear trudged his way through the overgrown grass. Due to his size, he looked like an explorer wading through a jungle, grass stalks coming up past his arm pits. The dew drops that hung from the green blades absorbed into his clothes as he brushed past, and in no time his outfit was soaked. But he pressed on, making his way to the center of the yard to get a good look around.

Disgust was following slowly behind. She winced as the water soaked her dress and as the mud accumulated on her little shoes.

"Ugh!" She whined, trying to keep up but unable to move faster though the mess. "I'm drenched! This is so awful..."

Fear kept pushing ahead. "Come on!" He called out behind himself. "It's just water. We need to find who's out here!"

Disgust shivered, feeling terrible about her condition. "Easy for you to say..." She grumbled. "I feel so gross right now. How are we gonna find them anyway?"

The purple figure stopped and surveyed the area around him. "Well..." He thought aloud. "Last time, I just climbed up to get a good vantage point when I came across you. Maybe we should get up higher..."

Stopping to wring her dress out, the green emotion let out an annoyed whine. "And where do you suggest we go." She growled. "Up the tree?"

Fear quickly turned to face the lone tree in the yard. It's bark was ratty and uneven, almost making the perfect climbing surface. Even the lowest branch was high enough to view the entire lawn, with a tiny wooden bird house hanging from its leaf-less tip. He turned to his coworker and smiled.

She immediately shook her head. "No. There is no way you are getting me up there."

Fear sighed. "Okay, you stay here on the ground. I'll climb up and tell you where they are."

Fear was at the tree's base in a heart beat. He looked up the trunk, studying the various finger and foot holds, planning the best route. His climbing abilities in this world had become unmatched. He was nothing but confident in his ability to get to the top.

He hopped onto the ragged bark and swiftly began to scale it, following the path he plotted from the ground. Pausing only once to catch his breath, he was able to make it to the lowest branch in no time at all. He walked out onto the branch, his chest puffed with pride, shooting a sly look to the green figure below.

But that's when he realized just how high above the ground he was.

His confidence and pride were quickly replaced with the familiar feeling of fear. His knees began to quiver, his hands began to tremble, his face began to sweat. By the time he had made it to the tip of the branch, he was a nervous wreck.

"Fear! Do you see them?" Disgust shouted up to the lavender creature frozen on the branch's edge.

Remembering his duties, Fear raised his head and began to scan the yard. But looking at the ground was only making him worse. He tried to stay focused.

"U-uhh." He shivered uncontrollably. "I... I see, uh..."

In an instant, he lost his balance.

Fear fell from the branch letting out a high pitched scream. From the ground, Disgust looked on with horror as she watched him slip off the wooden platform.

Reacting fast, Fear reached out with his long, lanky arms, managing to snag something only moments after falling. It was the stick jutting off of the bird house entrance to act as a grip for tiny bird feet. Fear breathed a huge sigh of relief and, with his whole body still shaking, struggled to hoist himself up and into the tiny hanging wooden room.

Fear managed to pull himself into the darkness of the enclosure, laying on the straw covered ground and breathing heavily. He turned to examine his new environment. Twigs and straw and piles of feathers littered the cramped wooden floor. The air was still and dusty, and the smell of animals lingered. But something else caught his attention. A faint glow was radiating from beneath a pile of debris in one corner. The same glow he knew the emotions skin would give off. It couldn't be!

Fear stood back up on his shaky legs and began to walk closer to the glow, twigs and yard litter crunching beneath his shoes with every step. "Hello?" He called out quietly, hearing his voice echo in the empty space. "Is someone there?"

A familiar face immediately sprung up from the pile. "Fear!?" It whispered back.

Recognizing them in an instant, Fear tried to take off into a run towards them, but accidentally tripped on a pile of feathers, landing flat on his face. The mound of feathers shifted, the sound of heavy breathing beginning to emanate from it. Fear watched in terror as the three other feather piles also began to move, slowly stirring from their slumber with growls and whines.

"Get out of here, Fear!" The voice in the corner shouted.


	18. Rise of the Robin

The mounds of feathers slowly rose and uncurled; four baby robins, tired, hungry, and extremely annoyed. Their fleshy pink skin was only sparsely covered in wirey, hair like feathers. Their beady black eyes flickered open, and they quickly locked on to the slim creature invading their nest. The four began to chirp and whine in unison, as they opened their beaks to insane degrees and pathetically attempted to reach out and grab the purple figure.

Not heeding the others advice, Fear ran towards the hidden emotion, avoiding the gaping maw's of the beasts as he quickly wriggled past them. In a panic, he attempted to cling to his former coworker who lay half hidden in the debris, but was instantly shoved away. Undeterred, he ducked behind them, wrapping his long arms around it's shoulders.

"What are you doing!?" It hissed, trying to remain quiet as the bumbling baby robins continued to whine for food. "I told you to get out of here!"

"I'm h-here to rescue you!" Fear stuttered a response, clutching his friend tighter and sounding thouroughly unconvincing.

The stubborn creature batted the skinny arms away, turning and glaring into Fear's frightened eyes. "I don't need rescuing!" It growled. "You need to leave before you become bird food!"

Fear felt equal parts hurt and confused, beginning to clutch his hands tightly to his chest and raise his thick eyebrows. "You... You don't?"

Suddenly, frustrated from being teased with the possibility of food, one of the baby birds began to emit a piercing scream. A second joined in, then a third. Finally, all four of the robin hatchlings were screeching to the skies in fury, filling the entire cramped birdhouse with the deafening howls that repeated ad infinitum.

Startled by the intense noise, Fear slammed his hands to the sides of his head in agony. "What's going on!?" He shouted over the screaming.

The other emotion ducked down into the hiding space it had made. "Now you've done it..." It grumbled.

As the four babies continued to shriek, a response came from beyond the bird house entrance. The cry of an adult American Robin billowed in through the hole in the wood. It was the mother, returning from a morning of hunting to tend to her frightened and angered children. She landed with ease on the little wooden perch, then crawled inside, chirping insanely at the babies as if to ask them what was wrong.

It didn't take her long to spot the shivering purple intruder cowering in the far corner. She screamed a harsh, threatening shriek at the figure, quickly hopping in farther, closing the gap between them. Fear stood frozen as the bird spread its wings, puffing its ruby chest, mouth agape, practically roaring at the poor creature as she prepared to attack.

Not wasting another second, the other emotion leapt up from beneath the straw and discarded feathers, planting itself between it's colleague and the beast. It's face quickly began to glow brighter, the little specs of color that made it's skin beginning to move at incredible speeds.

"Get out of here!" The emotion roared back. The robin, though mildly startled, held its ground and shrieked again.

The tiny emotion exploded, a jet stream of fire blasting from the top of its flat head.

"I SAID, GET OUT OF HERE!" He screamed, fire blazing, fingers twisting in rage.

The mother robin, letting out a sudden, terrified yelp, stumbled over it's thin black feet as it quickly fled it's nest and the burning creature within. It shot out the entrance like a bullet, landing for only a split second on the perch before taking off into the air, screaming threats behind it as it flew to a safe distance, abandoning it's equally startled children. The babies, unable to fly or even walk, instantly fell silent, curling back into little feather balls in an attempt to hide from the raging inferno.

Luckily for Fear, who had ducked down upon noticing the glow in his colleagues face, the fire which he produced was of pure energy. With no wood or fuel to burn, no smoke was produced in the process, and the fire was completely odorless.

The flame only lasted a few brief seconds before going out, the creature who produced it letting out an exhausted sigh as his face began to cool. Catching his breath, he turned back around to Fear, whose glassy eyes had only just begun to open once more. His own fiery red eyes burned a glare into the cowardly creature, his furiously misshapen teeth bared as a threat. His necktie was half undone, hanging loosely around his thick neck, his white shirt grayed with the dust of his environment.

"What the heck do you think you're doing!?" He managed to scream while maintaining a whisper. "Are you trying to get yourself killed!?"

Fear curled in on himself, his hair-like antennae drooping, his hands kneading nervously. "I... I was just trying to help."

"Help!?" The square red figure threw his arms up in a blind rage. "It's because of you that we're in this mess!"

The nervous purple emotion only continued to shrink himself down, a wave of guilt washing over him and his eyes beginning to moisten. "Anger... I didn't..." He whimpered. "I didn't mean to..."

"Do you know how long I've been stuck here!?" Anger jabbed a square finger into Fear's chest, who yelped and backed up into the wall behind him. "Do you know what I've been through!? Because of your little stunt, we're broken! Lost! Riley's stuck somewhere without any emotions, and it's all because of you!"

Fear struggled to get his voice to work, pressing his back against the wall, trying to avoid Anger's wrath. "But-but I..." He squinted, trying desperately to prevent tears from falling. "I f-found Riley. I... I was gonna... Gonna take you to her-"

Anger's eyes widened, still maintaining a furious expression. "What do you mean you found Riley?" A hint of disbelief was in his voice. "You... There's no way."

Fear was about to interject when he was interrupted by a chorus of screams. The baby birds, whom he had almost completely forgotten about while being threatened by the angry red square, had taken note that the fire was out and were once more calling out for their mother. But this time, their shrieks were twice as loud, sounding less frustrated and more alarmed, praying for protection against the strange tiny creatures.

Neither of the emotions had time to react before the bird was back, this time slamming its way into the bird house, enraged. This time, it wasn't about to back down. It stood over it's babies and shrieked, beating it's wings, blowing a gust of dusty debris onto the invaders.

"Anger!" Fear shouted, turning his head away to protect his eyes. "D-Do the fire thing again!"

Anger whirled around to face the monster, backing up until he was almost touching the lavender figure behind him. "I don't really have the best control over that, you know!"

"What are you talking about?" Fear was becoming more panicked as the beast took a few menacing steps forward. "You just did it a second ago!"

"I was angry at you! Now I'm just... I'm just..." Anger couldn't bring himself to say scared.

The mother bird leapt forward, snapping it's beak at the closer, squatter figure. Anger, ducking just in time, barely avoided his face being bitten off. Fear let out a panicked screech and, without thinking, grabbed Anger by the wrist and bolted for the exit. He trampled over a few of the howling baby birds on the way, too focused on escaping to care.

This only enraged the mother further. She released a piercing shriek just before taking off after them.

Fear dove through the hole, dragging Anger with him and stood fast on the wooden pole that stuck from the bird house's front. He looked up, but the tree branch was completely out of their reach. Turning to look behind them, he saw the mother bird approaching fast, screaming as she charged ever closer.

"What now!?" Anger bellowed, watching the beast close in.

"Fear!" A voice below called out.

The purple figure looked straight down. Disgust was below, waving her hand high above her head. She had spent the whole time they were inside building a landing pad below the bird house, knowing that there was no other way out for the small creatures. A huge pile of leaves and grass was sitting beside her, stacked higher than she was tall. She gestured wildly towards it, knowing that the two were in danger.

The bird snapped once more at Anger, only barely missing his ankles. With no room left to run, he could only bring himself to yell in response, trying desperately to scare the beast away.

Fear was out of options.

"Jump!" He screamed, fighting against all of his common sense and leaping off of the perch with all his might, pulling Anger with him as they began to fall. The two screamed in terror as they descended, picking up speed as they plummeted towards the earth. They landed directly in the center of Disgust's pile of soft and wet yard waste, shaken and soaked, but unharmed.

All three emotions quickly turned their gaze upwards to the mother robin, still perched at the bird house exit. She wasn't about to give up that easily. With a mighty screech, she leapt into the air, spreading her grey and ruby wings only briefly before angling downward into a nose dive, beak aimed at the tiny creatures.

"Quick! This way!" Disgust yelped, sprinting as fast as her little legs could carry her to the very base of the tree. Fear and Anger struggled to their feet and dashed after her, dodging the angry robin's first dive as she climbed back into the sky to ready a second attack.

As they approached the trunk, Disgust pointed a lime green finger at a single spot in the dirt. "There!" She shouted over the birds scream, as it once again began to dive towards them. Fear and Anger followed her gesture and noticed that she was pointing out a tiny knot hole in the tree; a little gap between raised roots and the dirt below. It was just big enough for the emotions to slip inside, but too small for the beast to follow.

With the bird drawing ever closer, snapping her beak in preparation, the three tiny figures ran even faster, leaping into the little hole with all their might. Anger, the one who was last inside, only barely made it into the safety before the bird could attack. She slammed into the knot hole, only to find that she could not enter. Sticking her face in and shrieking, she tried to force her body through, but it was no use. They had escaped.

The emotions, cramped in the tiny space only just big enough for the three of them, breathed heavily as they watched the robin finally give up. She pulled her face back out, gave a final furious and piercing shout, then took off, returning to her nest and the children she had protected.

Fear put a hand to his chest and closed his eyes, feeling dizzy from how scared he had been. Anger let out a relieved exhale, and turned to face Disgust, whom he only just noticed was there. Disgust looked back at him, panting from exhaustion, and managed a small smirk.

"So." She quipped. "That could've gone better."


	19. Pointing Fingers

Beneath the lone tree in the yard, hidden in the smallest knot hole, the three emotions sighed having narrowly avoided the wrath of the angry mother bird. They stood in the enclosed space uncomfortably close to each other, catching their breath after their chaotic escape. Fear and Disgust had been surprised that Anger had been able to keep up with them. When they themselves had been found, they didn't even have enough strength to stand up. Yet here was Anger, looking somewhat dirty, but otherwise okay even after running for his life. But they weren't about to question it. They were just relieved to see another of their coworkers alive and well.

Disgust, who hadn't yet had a chance to really acknowledge the third emotion, put a gentle hand on his shoulder. He returned the gesture with a blank expression, staring at her and trying to comprehend what had just happened. It had been days since he had seen one of his fellow emotions. He hadn't even been sure that he was in the same plane of existence as them, having been alone for so long in a place he did not recognize. He looked at her, then over to Fear. Anger's face, meeting his dusty purple-gray eyes, suddenly morphed into a familiar scowl. He huffed, turned around, and began to waddle his awkward frame back out into the yard.

Fear reached a lavender hand out. "Wait!" He pleaded in a harsh whisper, feeling his muscles begin to quiver. "What about the bird!?"

Anger walked back into the sunlight of the yard, carefully turning his face to the sky and the small bird house above him. But the robin had vanished, no doubt comforting its children after such a traumatic experience. Anger, satisfied that the danger was gone, continued to walk further into the still moist grass.

"The bird is gone." He growled, not even bothering to turn his head as he spoke. "It only cares if you mess with the babies. It wont be back."

Disgust took a single step closer to the knot hole exit, not yet ready to leave it's safety. "Where are you going?" She called out to the irritated crimson creature.

Anger didn't even break stride. "I'm going to survive." He mumbled, marching forward.

Pausing first to check the sky above, Disgust jogged out from the wooden cave to catch up to him. Fear, the thought of being left alone outweighing the thought of the birds return, followed just behind her, scanning all around to be sure the coast was clear.

"But you have to come with us!" She sounded mildly annoyed. "We have to take you to Riley!"

Anger scoffed. "Riley..." He muttered mournfully under his breath. "Riley's gone. We're on our own now."

"That's not true!" Fear sped up, closing in on his coworker. "She's waiting for us to bring you back!"

Rather than respond, Anger simply continued forward, refusing to let himself believe. He had hoped and waited for so long. He wasn't about to let himself get disappointed again. He growled furiously, done with the conversation and done with his former companions.

But Fear shot directly in front of him, stopping him dead in his tracks. "What's wrong with you?" He grabbed his short red friend by the shoulders tightly meeting his furious glare with a look of pure concern. "We were so worried about you. And we're so glad to see you okay again. Aren't you glad to see us..?"

Anger maintained his glare for a few more seconds. Then, with one swift, powerful motion, he lifted his arm and, with all his strength and fury, slapped the poor purple figure hard across the face. The power behind his blow was almost enough to knock Fear onto the ground. Only barely keeping his balance, Fear took a shocked step backward, putting his hands to his cheek where he was hit, feeling the heat radiating from it. He stared at Anger in disbelief, mouth agape, in horrendous pain both physically and emotionally.

"Glad to see you!?" He screamed, scaring the frightened creature a few more steps back. "You're the one who did this to me! If it wasn't for your little stunt, we never would've gotten in this mess!" Anger's face began to glow a bright orange. Fear cowered, tears streaming from his face, fingers still on his cheek. "Suddenly, I get sucked into some bright white portal that throws me into a gigantic tree! The only shelter I can find is inhabited by four screaming monsters and their huge beast of a mother! I get stuck in that bird house with no way to leave! I survive by stealing and eating the bugs that I manage to take from them! Then you show up screaming about rescue and almost get me killed! Glad to see you!? I never wanted to see you ever again!"

Anger was over Fear with an arm raised, ready to strike him a second time, when Disgust threw herself between the other two emotions, grabbing hold of the crimson creatures blocky wrist. "Hey!" She shouted, towering over the furious square. "You can't do that to him!"

He wrenched his hand away from Disgust, meeting her fury with his own. "You can't be serious!" He screamed as Fear ducked behind his green coworker and began to sob. "You're taking his side!? Do you even remember what he did!?"

"Of course I do!" She took a step forward, standing up to his rage. "I didn't... at first... but he sure had a way of making me relive those nightmares. But he just risked his life to save you, and you're gonna treat him like that!?"

The screaming match was escalating as neither emotion allowed themselves to back down. "Save me!? I was nearly eaten by a giant bird! I was better off without him! He ruined everything!"

"LISTEN." Disgust shrieked, managing to startle Anger and cause his face to instantly cool. "Fear just rescued you! He rescued me, too! He found Riley and has been working with her to fix the problem! And he was kind enough to help you out of the bird house so we could take you to her! Riley doesn't know what happened and, frankly, she doesn't need to know. The poor girl has been through enough as it is. So you now have two options. You can grow up and come back with us to Riley and help Fear try his hardest to fix the problem while keeping your big fat mouth shut about blames and finger pointing, or you can climb your blocky butt back into the birdhouse and eat bugs while we go find Joy and Sadness and come back for you last! So what's it gonna be!?"

Anger, utterly taken aback by Disgust standing up to him, turned around, roaring furiously as the glow in his face quickly returned. The roar quickly escalated to a screech of pure rage. With a strong square arm, he punched the soft dirt beneath his feet as flames crackled from his head, screeching at a deafening volume.

The fire went out and Anger returned his arm to his side, breathing heavily with his back to Disgust. He took a few good moments to think over all she had yelled at him. Finally, after a period of uncomfortable silence, he began to speak again, this time at a normal volume.

"Take me to Riley." He muttered under his cooling rage, still trying to sound like he was the one in control.

"Alright." Disgust, trying to keep the two calm, dropped the issue upon hearing Anger's new cooperativeness. She gestured toward the back door. "Let's go."

Anger took one look at where she was pointing and then began to storm in that direction, far ahead of Disgust, who calmly walked to the door at her own pace. Fear, sniffling, had taken his place just beside her, shuffling at the same pace with his hands locked on each other and his head hung in shame. The green figure took notice of his solemn, guilty posture, and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

His eyes glistened and he began to shudder. "He's right." He sniffed. "It is all my fault."

"It's okay." She comforted, gently rubbing the shoulder her hand was touching. "We're gonna fix this."

A tear escaped his lavender eyelids and began to roll down his still burning cheek. "I hurt Riley. And now you guys hate me..."

"Now, you know I don't hate you. And Anger, well... He's just confused. He doesn't understand what's going on and he's scared, though he'll never admit it. So he reacts the only way he knows how, with anger. He doesn't hate you. He just needs some time. You know how he is."

Fear wiped his face with a soft, lavender hand and nodded. He didn't know if he believed that Anger didn't hate him, but he knew that it would take him some time to come to terms with everything that had happened. He sighed, looking up at the grumpy brick in front of him. He wished he could go back and undo the past.

Anger stopped at the door and turned to face the other two, who could instantly tell that he had calmed significantly. Disgust and Fear walked past, Fear avoiding all eye contact, and slipped into the house through the open door. Anger hesitated, studying what little amount of the inside he could see. This was a realm he had not been in before. But he begrudgingly put his trust into his coworkers and followed them into the building. Once all three were in the house, Fear kicked the rock out of the screen door, allowing the crack to close.

The small red brick stood in awe, gazing at the gigantic furniture that surrounded him. He suddenly felt so tiny, a feeling that, despite being the shortest of his quintet, he rarely felt. Tables and chairs appeared as unscalable mountains, the fridge like a giant white skyscraper that loomed above.

"Where the heck are we?" He asked.

The other two whipped around and quickly shushed their companion. Anger scowled out of frustration and confusion.

"You have to be quiet!" Disgust whispered. "Riley's cousin is here, and she doesn't know about us! You can't ever let her see you!"

Fear trotted over to the old cell phone laying on the ground. Remembering Riley's example, he woke the device up from its electronic slumber and pressed the button that corresponded with Meg's ringtone. The phone instantly began to buzz, playing a low quality synthesized song that blasted through the air at full volume, causing all three of the emotions to jump.

"What are you doing!?" Anger shouted to Fear, covering the sides of his square head with his blocky hands. "She just said to be quiet!"

Disgust, avoiding any further problems between the two, gently tapped Anger's shoulder. "No, it's okay! Watch!"

In the other room, Riley was watching television with her cousin. She had been totally oblivious to the plights of her emotions just beyond the window, unable to hear their tiny voices through the walls. In fact, she was quite content. While mildly worried about the third emotion outside, she had still found it enjoyable to actually spend time with her cousin. They had both been so busy, what with work and fixing a numbed mind, that they hadn't truly appreciated each others company as they had in the past. It felt good to finally catch up, watching one of the cousins favorite movies as she explained it to her younger relative.

Suddenly, the tinny sound of her cell phone cut through the room. Riley's instinctual reaction told her that her friend was calling, before she remembered who was actually trying to grab her attention. Excited to hear what the two had found outside, the young girl sprang up from the couch.

"Oh, that's my friend!" She lied, beginning to walk away from the tv and the movie on its screen. "My old friend from Minnesota. I don't talk to her much. I'm gonna go take this, okay?"

Her cousin, though mildly disappointed that their time together had been cut short, smiled, grabbing her phone from her pants pocket. "That's cute!" She chirped. "It's really sweet that you keep up with her! Go on, I wont keep you."

Riley smiled at her cousin, wishing only briefly that she could tell her the truth behind the cell phones ring. Maybe soon, she thought. But not now. She turned and dashed into the kitchen.

Fear and Disgust watched as Riley sprinted into the room. Anger was too busy studying every corner of the room to see her enter. The young girl nodded at the two emotions she immediately recognized before her eyes locked on to the third. Thanks to Fears drawing, she could tell that this red figure was her Anger. Fear hadn't exaggerated when he had drawn him in almost a perfect square. Anger was facing the other way, looking toward the sink and the glowing window above it.

She put on her most calm and comforting face, leaning down close to the new creature. "Hey." She spoke gently, the little crimson creature whipping around and gazing deep into her eyes with a look of utter shock. "Are you alright?"

Anger's eyes were as huge as dinner plates, his pupils tiny needle points. His mouth moved wordlessly in a failing attempt to speak, but he couldn't find any words. He stumbled a little, his eyes rolled back. For the first time in his life, Anger passed out.


	20. A Broken Bond

Riley made her way up the creaking stairs. In one hand were the two tiny creatures she had come to know recently, one being purple and the other green. She could feel one of the two shivering, and could easily guess which of them it was. In her other hand was a single creature, cradled delicately in her palm. This one, red in color, was on its back, eyes shut tight, doing little more than breathing in its unconscious state. As the young girl climbed her way higher, she continued to talk into the empty air, pretending to be conversing with a friend over the phone. She kept up the fake exchange until she was safe in her room on the second story, and she shut the door behind her.

She let the two more familiar emotions go first, placing them gently on the hard wood floor. They both attempted to get a better look at the third, as Riley slid his square frame onto Fear's makeshift mattress. He lay still, his face expressionless, barely making any sounds or signs of life. His coworkers surrounded the bed, each taking hold of one of his blocky hands. They knew that physically their friend would be fine. But fainting was something that Anger just didn't do. They hoped the mental trauma hadn't been too much for the irritated emotion.

Riley sat down on her bed beside the creatures, reaching into her pants pockets. She revealed a plastic baggie filled with a handful of colorful dry cereal, a cup of her cousin's peach yogurt, and a single wooden skewer. She placed the items beside herself and leaned over the others, waiting to see when the red figure would wake.

Softly slapping his wrists, Disgust tried to rouse him with a recognizable voice. "Anger." She spoke in a sing-song voice like a mother waking her child for school. "Come on. Time to get up."

Fear kept his mouth tightly shut. After what had happened outside, he thought it may be best if he wasn't the one to wake his colleague. He could still feel the stinging pain in his cheek, and he hoped that the young girl wouldn't spot the hand print bruised on his face.

With still no sign of Anger stirring, Riley thought of another way to wake him up. She quickly and quietly tiptoed out of her room and into the bathroom, using the sink to fill her palm with a small amount of cold water. She reentered the bedroom, silently shutting the door once more, and kneeled down above the unconscious red figure. She held her breath and dumped the liquid right onto his face and forehead.

Anger's face twisted to a grimace and he opened his mouth to gasp, only to inhale some of the water, his breathing becoming a struggled coughing. Disgust and Fear helped to push their coworker into a more seated position, allowing the water to fall from his face and allowing his airways to open. Riley dove back onto her bed, worried that seeing her again would only cause the creature to pass out once more.

After a good amount of sputtering, Anger's red eyes finally fluttered open. "What..." He coughed, his voice hoarse. "What happened..?"

"You're alright." Disgust patted the center of his back to make sure the water was completely out of his system. "We just moved you to the bedroom."

Confused, the square figure began to scan his surroundings, noting the two emotions on either side of him. He saw the familiar layout of his own bedroom; the Hockey posters, the two shelves in the corner, the single window that allowed in the morning sun. But everything was a whole lot bigger than he had remembered. He put his hands to his face and wiped the water from his eyes, trying to recall what had just happened.

"How did I get in here?" He grumbled in his gravely voice.

"You fainted." Fear muttered nervously.

Anger quickly turned to face Fear, his eyes open wide in astonishment, hoping he had simply misheard him. "Fainted?" He repeated. "Me? Why? How?"

"Anger." Disgust interrupted him, and Anger turned back to face her. "There's someone here who wants to talk to you. You have to stay calm. She's not gonna hurt you."

He was about to ask who it was who wanted to talk to him when he heard the floor behind him creak as a large figure began to stand up. The young girl carefully stepped over the three emotions, turned, and slowly sat down cross legged on the floor in front of them. Anger's eyes had widened as she approached, closely following her every move.

Anger tried to push himself backwards and away from the looming giant, but only wound up pushing off the mattress and onto the ground next to Fear. The lavender figure tried to help his coworker up, but he stubbornly remained seated, trying to back up even further.

"Hey, hey!" Riley tried to keep her voice calm and quiet. "Don't be scared."

The young girls voice seemed to reassure the crimson creature, as he stopped struggling to escape. He stared directly into her gleaming blue eyes, breathing heavily with a hand to his chest. Riley tried to remain perfectly still, waiting for the emotion to make the first move.

Anger reached a hand up to Fear, who took it firmly and pulled to help him up onto his feet. Once standing, he wordlessly pulled his hand away from Fear and began to very slowly and extremely cautiously approach the girl in front of him. He stepped over the mattresses, Disgust cringing as his shoes planted into her own foam square, never once letting his eyes drift away from Riley's. He crept up until he was just in front of her knee, the young girl still sitting still as stone. He reached a blocky hand out and, hesitating only momentarily, put his palm to her pant leg. He could feel the warmth resonating from beneath the cloth; the warmth of a living being. She was real, she was alive, and she was right there in front of him.

"Riley..?" He asked as if he still needed confirmation.

The young girl slowly nodded.

The red figure took a step backward. "It's you. It's really you." He muttered, moving his hand to his forehead. He whirled around to face the other two emotions. "Who's in headquarters?" He shouted with concern.

Disgust shook her head. "No one." She sighed.

"Then... Then how is she..." Anger stuttered, confused and frustrated, pointing a finger towards Riley. His mind raced with thoughts and questions, none of which he had answers for. Overwhelmed, he backed up and sat on one of the small beds, burying his face in his hands and grumbling to himself. He just couldn't make sense of the situation. It was all too much for him.

"Anger..." Riley quietly called to him. His eyes snapped up to meet hers. "Do you remember what happened to you? What caused you to get thrown out of my mind?"

The red emotion instantly turned to shoot a furious glare at Fear, who immediately began to sweat and shake uncontrollably. Disgust returned his gaze with an intense stare, eyes squinting, a warning to keep quiet. Anger growled at the two, wanting to disobey but remembering the promise he had made earlier. He kept his word, and turned back to Riley with his face to the floor.

"No." He growled through clenched teeth. "I don't."

Riley sighed, annoyed that she was still in the dark about what had caused this massive problem. It was starting to feel like she would never figure it out. Especially since three of the five emotions seemed to know nothing of the event. She hoped that Sadness and Joy would finally give her the answers she needed. That is, if they found them in time.

"Can you tell me what you do remember?" Riley crossed her arms in thought. "Where have you been this whole time?"

Anger looked up at the young girl, still not sure what to think. He was never supposed to come face to face with her. It almost felt like it wasn't right for him to talk to her. He turned his head away and closed his eyes, not speaking a word in response. This couldn't really be happening, he thought. He wasn't about to be tricked.

Riley saw in his face and posture that she had yet to earn this third creatures trust. It seemed it would take more than a gentle voice and compassion to get through to him, as it had for Fear. She wondered if perhaps by some weird coincidence, what had worked for Disgust would do the trick. After all, this figure was far dirtier than the other two had been, having lived outside for days. The smell of animals radiated from his form, clear patches of dirt clumped on his face and arms.

She stood up, trying to make it less obvious that she was attempting to change the emotions opinion of her. She asked the question to the group, rather than the individual. "Do you guys want me to set up the shower again?" She asked, trying not to look at the crimson creature.

She should've known that Disgust would be the first to respond. "Yes!" She nearly screamed, running up to the young girls feet. "I'm first!"

Fear, sensing Riley's true intentions, interjected. "I-I think Anger should go first." He stuttered. "You and I just took one yesterday."

Disgust whipped around to face Fear, lime green hands on her hips. "No way!" She snapped. "I just had to build a giant pile of mud for you two! There's dirt beneath my nails, my feet are filthy from tromping around the yard in wet shoes. I need to shower this instant!"

Anger, who was more interested in the argument than in the actual shower, chimed in. "And I just spent days in a bird house with four filthy fledglings!" He growled. "You can wait!"

Glad to hear that he was at least somewhat interested and hoping that this would work, Riley jumped into the conversation. "Anger's right. He can go first. You'll be second, Disgust."

The green emotion let out a low grumble of frustration as Anger hopped up from the bed, smirking about his victory. Riley placed her hand on the floor next to the square figure, offering it as a platform. Anger stared at it for a brief moment, then side stepped around, completely ignoring her offer and making his way to the door himself. The young girl lifted her hand back and sighed, feeling slightly hurt that this new creature seemed to dislike her so. She wondered what she had done wrong, and hoped with all her being that this shower would change his mind.

She gently pushed the door open, trying not to make a sound. Creeping about the house would be a lot harder with her cousin home. Thankfully, she had not turned off the tv, and its constant chattering helped to hide her snooping about.

Leaving the other two emotions behind, Riley swooped out across the hallway and into the bathroom. She glanced behind herself at Anger, who slowly followed with his eyes to the floor. Due to his strange shape and stubby legs, he was rather sluggish. Riley had enough time to set up with drops of soaps and tissue towels before he even made it onto the tiled floor. Finally, she turned on the tap to just above a luke warm temperature, checking the heat with her wrist. The tiny shower was set.

She bent over and, knowing her hand would only get rejected, pinched the back of Anger's shirt between her fingers. He barely responded with a 'hey' as she quickly lifted him up off the ground and onto the counter top. He shot a glare at the girl, who shrugged. "There's no other way up here." She whispered.

As Anger turned to study the makeshift shower, Riley crept out of the room and began to shut the door behind her. "Just shout when you're done." She whispered, before pulling the door until only a crack remained open. She tiptoed back to her room, leaving its door the same way, set herself on her bed and sighed.

Fear and Disgust looked up at her, knowing something was wrong. Riley folded her hands on her stomach and stared at the plastic stars above.

"Why does he hate me?" She asked, not really talking to anyone in particular.

Disgust scoffed. "Anger? Hate you?" She laughed, sitting on her own mattress. "Not in a million years."

Riley raised an eyebrow. "You really don't think so? But he wont even talk to me."

"Honestly..." Fear mumbled, rubbing his lavender hands. "I think he's afraid. Afraid he might hurt you."

"Trust me." Disgust said reassuringly, picking at the dirt beneath her nails. "That little guy cares more about you then you'll ever know. He just... He's never been the greatest at showing it. But whenever someone tried to mess with you or hurt your feelings, he was always right there. Anger only ever wanted what was best for you, and he wouldn't accept anything less."

"Give him time." Fear joined in, staring at his feet. "He's got a lot on his mind. Once he figures out what he's really mad about, he'll loosen up."

Neither of the three heard any footsteps. They didn't hear anyone ascend the stairs, didn't hear anyone cross the hallway.

Anger had just wrapped the towel around his waist when the bathroom door creaked open. He quickly looked up at the girl who had entered, meeting her brown eyes, watching the look of horror creep over her face. He froze, unsure how to react, trying his hardest to disappear.

For the girl who had entered was not Riley.


	21. Shadows

Riley's cousin stood frozen in time with one foot in the bathroom. Her mouth hung slightly agape, her eyes fixed on the creature on the counter top. Thoughts raced through her mind at light speed, trying to deduce what was happening. The creature, too, had halted. He stood solid as a stone, still dripping with the cooling drops of his shower. They both were utterly silent, the only sound in the room emanating from the sinks still running tap. They stood still for a solid seven seconds, both waiting for the other to make the first move.

Unable to come up with a proper response to the situation, the cousin reacted reflexively. All the muscles in her body tensed at once, and she let out a piercing scream that echoed in the cramped tiled room.

That was Anger's cue. Startled, his body suddenly surged with adrenaline, and he took off running on his stubby legs across the counter. Jumping from this height was out of the question, so he raced around to the sink faucet and ducked behind a container of hand soap, still only wearing the tissue towel around his middle. The cousin, meanwhile, backed her way into the hallway, screaming. She wrenched open the hallway closet and began to search for a weapon to fight off the strange monster.

The older girls cries of terror alerted the three in Riley's bedroom. They had been completely unaware that the cousin had ever come up to the second floor. Now, as they listened from across the hall to her startled scream, they knew instantly what she must have seen. Riley scrambled to her feet, destroying her well made bed, and dashed out of the bedroom, avoiding the creatures on the floor. She flew out the door, spotting her cousin half buried in the hall closet.

"What- What's going on?" Riley shouted, hoping with every ounce of her being that something else triggered the older girls fearful response.

"In... In the... Bathroom." Her cousin yelled through gasps, knocking over several objects on the shelves as she searched for something suitable. "There's some sort... Some sort of horrible bug!"

"Bug?" Riley parroted back, sweat accumulating on her brow. "What do you mean? What kind of bug?"

"I don't know!" The older girl shouted. She grabbed a decorated paper bag that said 'happy birthday' from the bottom shelf and tightly rolled it into the perfect insect destroyer. "Some weird, hairy, pitch black bug thing!"

Riley paused for a moment. Pitch black? That couldn't have been Anger, she thought. Or could it? Why had that description seemed so familiar?

Her mind distracted by a thousand questions, she almost didn't notice as her cousin reentered the bathroom, the paper weapon brandished high above her head. Riley tried to shout something to get her to stop, but she was already grabbing the hand soap container that Anger had ducked behind. Her cousin took a deep breath in, then quickly snatched the bottle and struck the counter beneath.

But to her surprise, there had been nothing behind the soap. Her weapon had impacted against bare counter top. There were no creatures of any kind to be seen. She quickly scanned the rest of the bathroom and found that it was clean.

She jumped a step backward, dropping the bag to the floor. "Oh no!" She shivered. "It's loose! That bug is loose in the house!"

Riley felt a peculiar mix of muffled relief and concern wash over her. She was thankful that Anger had gotten away, but worried as to where he could've gone to. She didn't have much time to think about it, though, as her cousin quickly stormed past, grabbing the smart phone from a pocket and heading for the master bedroom.

"I'm calling an exterminator!" She announced, a slight quivering in her voice. "There's no way I'm letting some nightmare bug roam free in this house!"

"Wait!" Riley cried, but was met only with the bedroom door slamming in her face as her cousin typed on her phones keypad in search of a pest control number.

The younger girl ran back into the bathroom, still concerned as to where the emotion had gone. She gazed at the counter top, specifically at the tiny pile of clothes that layed next to the still running tap. He wouldn't have gone far without those. Riley turned off the water and called out for her missing creature.

"Anger?" Her voice cracked from fear as she spoke.

The large hand towel that lay folded by the faucet began to shift. From beneath its blue and green starry pattern emerged the familiar square face of the red figure. He paused to make sure that the girl in question was indeed Riley before completely revealing himself, still only covered by the tissue around his waist. He panted, laying a hand on his heaving chest, trying desperately to catch his breath.

Breathing a rushed sigh, Riley shot her hand out, scooping up the creature before he could protest. With her other hand, she grabbed his tiny discarded clothes, then made a mad dash back to her bedroom, kicking the door open with all her might. Fear and Disgust, who had been anxiously waiting near the center of the room, leapt backwards, startled by the sudden noise. But as the girl lowered her hand and placed their crimson colleague on the ground, their frightened expressions melted away to reveal faces of relief.

"Anger!" They shouted in almost perfect unison, dashing up to him as fast as their legs would carry them. Both reached their arms out to embrace the companion they had feared losing, but were swatted away by his blocky bear arms before they could even get close.

"Hey hey!" He shouted, still trying to find his breath. "At least let me get dressed first!"

The two emotions had been so happy to see him safe that they hadn't realized the poor thing was barely covered. Riley tossed his small outfit beside him haphazardly before once again taking off into the hallway. Now that he was safe, she had to stop her cousin before she summoned someone to bug bomb the house.

Right as she reached a hand out to open the master bedroom door, her cousin threw it open from the other side. She held her smart phone in her hand, glaring at it's sleek screen, rapidly tapping the red 'hang up' button at the bottom.

"Those stupid exterminators..." She growled to herself. "Why the heck are they closed on Saturdays anyhow?"

Once again, the young girl couldn't believe her luck. The emotions were safe from the pest control and their poisonous products. But it was clear now that she could no longer hide the growing secret from her cousin. She would have to fill her in on what had been happening to her. How could she, though? Her cousin would never believe it. Riley barely believed it for herself. How much info should she give, she wondered, and how much was unnecessary detail that only made the story far more unbelievable.

The older girl stepped further out into the hallway, tapping away on the electronic's screen. "That does it." She murmured. "I have to call your mom and dad."

Panic flowed through Riley's veins in a torrent. Not thinking and acting purely on instinct, she ran up and swiped the phone from her cousins hands. "No!" She shouted. "You can't! Please!"

Her cousin, her hands still formed around an invisible object, looked back at her younger relative, stunned. "Riley? What's wrong with you?"

With things happening too fast, the young girl found her eyes rapidly growing moist, her body beginning to tremble. She clutched the stolen phone tightly in her hands. "Please. You can't tell my mom and dad." She sniffed. "I can explain. You have to trust me..."

The older girl's anger and confusion melted away to concern for her relative. She knelt down to her level, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Explain what?" She asked in a controlled, calm tone. "What's the matter?"

Riley took a deep breath in. It was now or never. She was still too scared to tell every piece of the story. She feared that if the situation sounded too desperate, her parents would surely be informed. If it sounded too unbelievable, which the whole thing definitely did, than it would be quickly dismissed as fiction. It would take a delicate trickle of information to win her cousin over. And she would only get one shot.

"They're not bugs..." She exhaled.

"They're?" Her cousin repeated. "You mean there's more?"

Riley cringed at her own mistake. "Yes." She admitted, closing her eyes tightly. "But they're not dangerous! They're just... lost."

Even this little bit of info was quickly becoming hard to believe. Her cousin placed an exasperated hand to the bridge of her nose. "Lost. And how do you know this?"

"Because..." Riley tried hard to keep her attention. "I've sorta been... Remember when I told you I heard the scratching sound? Well, it was them. And I keep finding them, and I've kinda... been taking care of them."

"You haven't touched them, have you?" Her cousin lurched backwards, pulling her hands to her chest. "You don't know what kind of bugs they are! They could be poisonous!"

"They're not bugs!" The young girl shouted, beginning to become irritated. "They're little..! They're little creatures. And they're just trying to find their family so they can go home."

The older girl stood back up slowly, placing her hands on her hips. "You sound so sure, like you've been talking to them, or something." She said in a mocking sort of tone.

Riley put her hands over her face and growled. This was even more difficult then she had imagined. Explaining wasn't working. She had only one other option. Still holding tightly on to the phone like bait, she began to slowly make her way to her bedroom door. "Here." She sighed. "Just let me show you."

"Are you sure you don't want to talk about this with your parents?" The cousin asked, remaining static in her position.

Riley's face twisted in desperation. "Remember when Boss was sick?" Riley pointed an accusing finger at her cousin at the mention of the dogs name. "Dad told you that you weren't allowed to bring him to our house while you watched me. Who not only kept your secret, but helped take care of him AND helped clean up after so no one knew?"

The older girl knew she was defeated. It was true, she owed her cousin for helping her out when her beloved dog fell ill. She had said she would return the favor some day, thinking she would take her young cousin to an amusement park or something. This was not at all what she had in mind. But she supposed she owed her at least a chance to explain herself. So, while still not particularly enthused about the idea, she followed the younger girl as she opened the bedroom door.

Fear and Disgust, who had returned to sitting on their beds, bolted to their feet when they saw the second girl approach. Disgust gasped, Fear screamed, and they both began to shuffle backwards. Their nightmare had come alive: they were spotted. And it was Riley who had lead the girl right to them. Anger was no where to be seen.

"Wait, guys!" Riley tried not to shout, taking a few steps closer to the startled creatures. "It's okay. She wont hurt you."

Fear inched closer to his green companion, ducking behind her back. Riley, now standing almost centered in her room, turned to find that her cousin had frozen in the doorway. She glared at the creatures on the floor, the look of horror returning to her face. Her eyes moved to their point of origin, the makeshift beds upon the floor, then back to the figures.

"You-You made them beds?" She stuttered, barely getting her words out. "Riley! You can't keep these things! If they're not bugs, then they're wild animals! Wild... Smokey... Shadowy monsters..! We have to get rid of them!"

Riley vigorously shook her head. "No! Please! They're not monsters! They're nice and they're smart and they need my help!"

The older girl was encountering so much difficulty trying to grasp the situation. "But how do you know!" She yelled, raking her fingers through her hair.

"Watch!" The younger cousin instructed. She leaned down, placing her hand on the ground near the two quivering creatures. They looked back at her, shocked, making it clear that they wanted no part of this new person. But Riley curled her fingers and begged, the desperation clear in her voice. After a good amount of hesitation, it was Fear who finally began to slowly approach the platform.

Her cousin gasped as she watched what appeared to be a tiny black beast enter her relatives hand. Riley slowly brought the thing up and gingerly held it in front of her eyes. Through the smokey trails it's body was leaving, she couldn't even make out its basic shape. It was almost as if her hand was holding a wispy black storm cloud that she plucked from the sky. She swallowed hard, wishing she had never promised that favor.

"Go on." Riley urged the creature in her palm, appearing to her as a clear lavender figure with bright eyes and a slim build. "Say something. Prove to her that you can speak."

Fear nervously studied the woman in front of him. She bore a striking resemblance to Riley's mother, except with bright gold hair and a younger face. He could tell at a glance that she was frightened, but he knew the feeling was mutual. He began to shake uncontrollably, hugging his long arms around his middle in an attempt to hold himself steady.

"H-h-h..." He fought to get his mouth to speak. "H-he-hello... I... I-I-I'm-"

"OH MY-JEEZ. RILEY!" Her cousin flew backwards in a panic, completely terrifying Fear into a tense shivering ball in Riley's palm.

"What!?" The young girl cried, bringing the figure closer to herself.

"IT JUST..." She yelled, still at full volume. "IT JUST HISSED AT ME."


	22. An Overdue Explanation

"Hissed at you?" The young girl asked, looking down at the lavender figure she held to her chest. He had compressed himself into a tiny whimpering ball, shivers radiating from his form and down the girls arm. He slowly lifted his head, opening his bright eyes to watch for signs of danger. Riley lifted an eyebrow in confusion. This sad, pathetic creature seemed completely incapable of a provocative act like hissing. Why could her cousin not see that? "He was just saying hello." She tried to explain.

The older girl took another step back and shook her head. She glared at the smokey black monster that lay in her younger cousins palm. She knew what she saw and she knew what she heard. How could Riley not see the beast for what it truly was? Were they observing the same creature? Could it really be possible that one of them couldn't see it correctly? And if so, who was the one who saw the true image? The cousin didn't want to take any chances.

"Give me my phone, Riley." She commanded, reaching a slightly shaking hand out to the younger girl. "We need to get rid of these. They aren't talking. They aren't sentient. They're freaky alien bug things."

Rebelliously, Riley pocketed the older girls phone. "They are sentient!" She demanded, a tone of desperation entering her voice. "What would I have to gain from lying to you? I can prove they understand me!"

The older girl, growling, pulled her hand back and rubbed her temples. This was too much for her, and she had only been told half of the story. Riley, meanwhile, glanced down at the frightened figure in her palm. His dusty purple eyes met hers and he slightly shook his head, not wanting to be a part of any demonstrations. But he knew he had no choice, so didn't protest any further when he was placed back on the ground. Riley stood up tall, while Fear hunched forward, gripping his hands together tightly and keeping an eye on the larger woman in front of him.

"Go sit on your bed." Riley instructed the small creature like an owner commanded an animal. She also decided to include the location of his bed in particular as further proof for her cousin. "The one on the right."

Fear obeyed. He began to slowly walk backwards toward the makeshift green mattress he had slept on for the past few nights, never allowing his eyesight to stray from the cousin. He watched as her eyes dilated, as she shook her head in disbelief. He really was listening. She couldn't believe her eyes. The creature finally made it to the soft cushion and sat himself down.

"Now, you." Riley pointed a finger at Disgust, who had been standing by the nightstand in silence for the past few minutes. "Come here."

Disgust looked at Fear for guidance, but his only response was with a face that read 'I am at a total loss'. The green figure sighed, and finally forced herself to move forward, maintaining her dainty stride despite the stress she felt. Riley's cousin watched her approach with the same look of awe she had given the other. She could no longer deny the strange monsters intelligence. But, she wondered, was this intelligence a reason to be trusted? Or should she consider it a threat?

As Disgust neared the halfway between the point she began and Riley's feet, she was issued a new command. "Stop!" The young girl shouted, instantly halting the figures approach. Disgust, now standing still, looked up wondering if she had performed incorrectly.

Riley turned to her cousin. Not only had she demonstrated that the creatures could understand her, but she proved they completely obeyed her. She waited impatiently for a response from her relative.

The older girl put her face into her hands. "Riley..." She mumbled into her palms. "I... I don't... What am I supposed to do..?" She lifted her head and sighed. "Say I let you keep them. What are your parents gonna think when they get home? You and this house are my responsibility. If they find out I was hiding something this... this... insane from them, I'm gonna be the one at fault."

"I promise they'll be gone before then!" Riley pleaded, folding her hands together and skittering forward a few steps. "Once I find the rest of them, they can go home! I'll make sure that any signs of them are completely cleaned up before mom and dad come back! Just please let them stay!"

Her cousin let out a long, exaggerated exhale. "And just how many of these... things... are there?" She grumbled.

"Five." The young girl nodded. "I have three, so I just need to find the last two."

The older girl looked past her young relative to the creatures on the floor. One shadow was still standing near Riley's feet, the other was staring at her from atop its so-called bed. She glanced back at Riley and lifted an eyebrow. "Three?"

"Yeah, well..." She folded her arms and turned to look behind herself, scanning for the missing red emotion. "You startled him pretty badly. When he was showering, no less. He'll probably come out soon enough..." She shrugged, trying to sound convincing.

Not even wanting to question the 'showering' statement, the older girl finally admitted defeat. The whole thing was so unbelievable. She briefly considered the possibility that she was dreaming this entire thing. But it seemed like her younger cousin had some form of control over the situation. And she wondered, what harm could the tiny black shadows do? And if they were some form of demon bugs, was there really anything she could do to stop them? Her mind raced with questions and confusions until she simply refused to take it any longer.

"I just. I can't think about this right now." She groaned, once again reaching her hand out. "Can I please just have my phone back? I really need to lie down."

Riley slipped a hand into her jeans pocket. "You're gonna let me keep them..?" She prodded, fighting for a clear answer.

Her cousin sighed. "Yes." She growled under her breath.

The young girl removed the blocky smart phone from her side and began to hand it to her cousin, but pulled it away at the last second. "Wait." Her brow lowered into a glare. "You're not gonna call my parents, are you?"

The older girl threw up her hands, frustrated. "No, I'm not!" She shouted, tired of the conversation. "I just want to relax and do what I always do on my phone. Okay?"

Finally satisfied and giving a single nod of affirmation, she gave the device back to its rightful owner. Her cousin took a deep breath, looked one last time at the strange smokey beasts staring at her, then turned and headed slowly back to the master bedroom, mumbling something about the insanity of the whole situation.

When the audible click of the bedroom door echoed through the house, Riley finally sighed and rested her tensed, aching muscles. She began to turn back to her emotional companions as she tried to relax again.

"Where is Anger, anyway?" She asked.

Before she even finished her sentence, the two figures suddenly flinched in perfect unison. They're bodies began to brighten, and they writhed and whined in agony. Riley didn't have to look at a clock to know it had just hit 10:59. The ritual had begun.

From beneath the bed came a sharp shout of pain in a distinctive gravely voice. Recognizing the red figures cries, Riley threw herself to her hands and knees and scanned the floor beneath the frame, spotting the glowing crimson creature near the corner of the wall. He was wincing, his arms wrapped around his fully clothed middle, the light flecks of his skin burning ever brighter.

Feeling a muted sense of pity, Riley reached a hand out to remove the suffering emotion from the lonely darkness that he had hidden himself in, but the second her flesh came in contact with his, she jerked her hand back. His body was scalding! It felt like she had tried to touch a live stove top. As she sat up and tried to cool her burn by blowing on the pink skin, she didn't notice the guilty look that Anger had responded with, ashamed that he had caused her pain.

Knowing what her goal had been, the blocky red creature stumbled out of the shadow, groaning as the hurting intensified before giving into the agony and collapsing on Disgusts mattress. He looked to both of the other emotions, studying the discomfort in their faces, acknowledging that he was not alone in his suffering.

The time finally rolled over to 11:00. With one last gasp, the three emitted the colored rings they had several times before. This time, a third, red ripple joined the purple and green ones, and they began to radiate across the wood floor.

Since Anger had placed himself so close to Disgust, it was the red and green rings that met each other first. From their point of intersection, a separate, brighter ring began to form, causing the ones that created it to fade almost instantly. This new ring, almost golden in color, quickly radiated to the purple ring, causing another reaction at the new intersection. A final ring emerged. It burned incredibly bright, hummed with the sound of pure energy, and quickly spread across the floor at an incredible speed. But, even though it lasted far longer than any of the individual ripples, it finally began to fade just before it passed into the master bedroom.

The three emotions, tired but relieved the pain was over, began trying to catch their breath.

"We... Still don't know... what those things are..." Disgust wheezed, trying her best to remain standing.

"What?" Anger growled, out of breath. "You mean... the Recall Pulses?"

Fear's eyes lit up. "You know what those rings are?"

Anger, purposefully not making eye contact with the lavender creature behind him, folded his thick arms across his chest. "Kind of." He grumbled as he laid himself down. "I think it was Joy who said something about 'em once. Something about how emotions emit them if they're 'ejected'. She also said something about how they're a 'painful but really important trick we can use'!" He spoke the last part in a mocking imitation of Joy's bubbly voice, air quoting with his blocky fingers.

Finally happy to hear some new information, Riley could feel a smile spread across her face. "So, what do these recall pulses do?" She beamed.

The red creature turned to her with a blank expression and shrugged. "I don't know that much." He mumbled softly.

As quickly as it had appeared, Riley's smile faded. So much for new information. Still, it was good to know they were on the right track. There was an emotion out there who apparently had some answers. She just hoped the last two creatures were still okay after being lost for so long.

Noticing that the three emotions seemed to lose their pep from the over stimulating situation with her cousin, Riley remembered what she had brought with her a while back. She made her way to the bed where she had previously tossed the objects. Fearing the new emotion would be as starving as the others had been, she had brought a yogurt cup and skewer with her. But since Anger seemed fully capable of eating food himself, she decided to give all three the same meal. She plucked the plastic baggie full of cereal puffs from the mattress and popped it open.

She handed Fear a puff first, as he had been sitting the closest. He eagerly took it, giving an awkward, crooked smile, and immediately crunched into the sweetened oat sphere. Riley handed a second piece to Disgust, who had approached when she noticed that food was being distributed. She happily accepted, smiling at its bright blue color. Finally, the girl offered a piece to Anger.

He didn't take the puff. Instead, the crimson creature looked up at the girl with his red eyes open wide. Riley tried pushing it a hair closer, but Anger didn't budge. He just looked up, gazing with an expression of bewilderment. Shrugging, the young girl gave up and placed the cereal piece on the bed next to the emotion, then took a few more puffs out of the bag to eat for herself.

Anger stared at the food beside him, then back at the girl. He slowly reached a bulky hand out and picked up the ball, continuing to look to Riley as if he was checking that she was certain he could have it. Finally, deciding that Riley wasn't going to change her mind, he looked back down to the oat puff and quickly began to devour it. His eyes closed contentedly. It was food. Real food. No more bugs.

Finishing off the cereal, Riley stood up once again.

"Well." She sighed, putting her hands to her hips. "As long as my cousin knows about you guys, I guess we have free roam of the house."


	23. Blast from the Past

Riley gently knocked on the door to the master bedroom in a rhythmic pattern. It had been a while since the older girl had sealed herself away after learning about the mysterious creatures living in the house. Riley had promised to take the emotions out of her room for a while; all three were growing exhausted from the amount of stress they had been feeling. The young girl thought it may be wise to allow them to wander the house for a little. Perhaps a bit of exploration and relaxation would boost their spirits. Besides, Riley thought, she still hadn't connected with Anger. Before she could think about finding the next emotion, she wanted to make sure that the ones she had were on her side.

In order for her to keep her promise to the little figures, she first wanted to check if the older girl would be opposed to the idea. After all, she knew about the creatures now. Riley had to stay on her cousin's good side. One slip up, and her parents and five heavily armed exterminators would be at their house in an instant. Since the older girl hadn't been in the best of moods when she locked herself in the bedroom, Riley decided to give her a little time to cool off. It was also time for her to build up the courage to ask to release the 'shadowy beasts' into the house.

The little bit of time turned into quite a lot of time. As she waited, Riley had picked up the book she was reading, and quickly found herself lost in the tale. The emotions, excited for a chance to explore and not wanting to ruin their chances, had patiently remained quiet the entire time, Riley was even pretty sure at least one of them had dozed off during the wait. When she finally managed to put the story down, she decided that the creatures had waited long enough.

Riley knocked on the door once again, having received no response the first time. "Hey." She called out just loud enough to be heard through the wood door. "Are you awake?"

"Yeah." The cousin called out in the flattest voice she could muster, making it nearly impossible for her relative to predict an answer.

"Um, I was just wondering..." Riley looked down at her hands, which had begun to nervously fidget. "Do you think I could let the little things out of my room? Just for a little while. I wanted to give them a chance to relax and look around." Riley bit her lip and waited for a response.

Her cousin exhaled a loud, slow and very annoyed growl. Riley could almost picture the older girl raking her fingers down her face as she did in times of stress. "I honestly don't care. I don't want to even think about those things right now."

Riley's eyebrows raised in mild surprise. She hadn't heard an obvious refusal. Had her cousin actually agreed to the proposition? She wanted to clarify, but was afraid to repeat the question and annoy the woman further. "Okay. We'll be downstairs." She announced, testing to see if she encountered any resistance.

After waiting a good ten seconds and not receiving a response, Riley smiled and began to head back to her room to tell the others. But just as she turned to leave, she heard the woman call out once more.

"Keep an eye on those things, Riley." She warned, suddenly sounding extremely serious.

"I will!" Riley chirped back, and dashed into the bedroom.

The young girl carefully descended the stairs, three little creatures in her grip. Fear and Disgust were nestled in her right hand, kneeled down and gripping her palm to avoid shaking around with each step. It had taken a great amount of coaxing, but she had successfully managed to talk Anger into boarding her other hand. He stood up straight, his blocky hands grasping the tips of Riley's slightly curled fingers, gazing at the huge world around him. He didn't want to admit it, but unlike the other two emotions, he rather enjoyed the trip.

As she cleared the last step, the young girl ambled into the living room and released the three colorful creatures onto the carpet. The trio gazed back up at her as if waiting for instructions.

"Alright." She shrugged. "Go on."

Anger turned and began to shuffle towards the tv, marveling at how large it was compared to what he remembered. Fear followed for a few steps, but when Anger heard his footsteps, he purposefully picked up the pace. Feeling rejected, Fear stopped and slowly walked back to Disgust, who was still staring at the young girl.

"Go on and what?" Disgust put her dainty hands on her hips.

"I don't know." Riley sighed, flopping backwards onto the couch. "What do you guys do for fun?"

"We're parts of you, remember?" Fear explained, taking a few timid steps forward. "We do all the same things you do. We have fun when you're having fun. In your mind, we don't really do anything besides work."

Riley was readying a response when a gravely voice came from beneath the tv stand. "Hey!" Anger shouted. "This thing still works, right?"

The young girl lifted an eyebrow, trying to think of what the little creature could be talking about, and stood up to see what Anger had found. She crossed the floor to the stand and kneeled down, finding that the red figure wasn't beneath it but beside it. One of his big square hands was resting on a familiar black object, and he looked up at Riley with an expression of anticipation. The girl smiled; he had found her moms old Atari.

Riley quickly collected the necessary connectors and began to fumble with the web of wires. It had been a while since she plugged in the old system, but she was sure she still remembered how. Fear and Disgust approached and grinned when they noticed what was being set up, and stood beside Anger as the three waited to play. They all recalled the hours they had spent playing these old games when they were younger. It had been one of their favorite things to do, a rare activity enjoyed by all five of the emotions.

She plugged in the controller, and the old Atari was ready to go. All it needed was a game to play. Riley skipped over to the nearby shelf and grabbed the cardboard box labeled 'games'. Inside was a messy assortment of all the cartridges her family had collected over the years. Recognizing the one on top, she plucked it from the mess and popped it in the console.

"Well..." Riley picked up the controller with a bit of a puzzled expression. "Did... Did you want to try and play?"

Anger, despite being smaller than the controller, eagerly nodded. With a shrug, she set the joystick on the ground beside him. Using the base as a platform, he stepped onto to the electronic and wrapped his brick-like hands around the control stick, placing a foot next to the single red button. The stubborn crimson figure wasn't about to let his size get in the way of playing.

Riley turned the tv on, then the system itself. A blocky image of a man in a jungle appeared on the screen. The emotions smiled in unison, fond memories of the game flooding back.

"Pitfall!" Fear clapped, sitting cross legged beside the controller.

"I remember when we first played this one." Disgust laughed.

The young girl, happy to see the emotions in such a good mood, walked back to the couch to watch.

Anger leaned to the right, pulling the joystick with him and moving the green clad avatar to the next screen. Dodging the rolling logs was a little tricky, since he could only control the jump button with his foot. Thankfully, the logs took points, not lives, and it gave him good practice for the challenges to come.

Fear and Disgust laughed as Anger grabbed the vine in the next area, causing the game to emit a tinny rendition of the Tarzan shout. "Can you believe how atrocious these games used to sound?" The green figure playfully teased. "And the graphics are so primitive!"

"Cut them some slack." Fear giggled, leaning back onto his hands. "This game came out when Mom and Dad were young. Besides, I thought those scorpions were kinda scary..."

Anger's avatar slipped into the open mouth of a crocodile that he was attempting to hop over. "Quiet!" He barked. "I can't concentrate."

Reappearing at the left of the screen, he once more tried to cross the lake with the trio of crocodiles, only to mess up the timing and fall into the mouth of the third beast. He emitted a low, frustrated growl as the game played a short 'lost a life' tune.

"Wow, you're great at this." Disgust mocked, flicking her emerald green hair to the side.

"It's hard!" Anger retorted, whipping around to face the emotions behind him, a glow beginning to form on his face. "You think you could do any better? Playing with a controller this big is nearly impossible!"

Not about to back away from the challenge, the lime green figure rose to her feet. "I bet I could do better!" She smirked, and walked closer to the controller.

With a scoff, Anger hopped down from the joystick and allowed Disgust to take his place. While He took a seat on the floor, she set herself up in much the same way he had; her hands wrapped around the control stick and a foot ready next to the button.

She took a deep breath, then pushed the joystick to the right, causing the pixelly man to start running. With graceful foot taps and perfect timing, Disgust hopped across all three of the crocs with ease, landing safely on the ground at the other end of the lake. She shot a smarmy look in Anger's direction, who quickly folded his arms across his chest.

"Beginners luck!" He shouted.

From back on the couch, Riley smiled brightly. She had never seen the creatures this relaxed before. Not even Fear, whom she had known the longest at this point. It was like she finally caught a glimpse of their true personalities, of how they acted when they were in her mind. It was so bizarre, but it really was watching the separated pieces of her own mind. She almost felt sad knowing that soon they would have to return to her mind. Sure, she wanted to feel like her normal self, but she would miss the tiny creatures and their antics.

The four of them spent hours playing the old system. Every so often Riley would help the emotions put in a different one of their favorite games. All three creatures took turns manning the controls, they even did a few player versus player games with Riley's second controller. It was the most fun the beings had had in a while. It almost made them forget their troubles and the sorry predicament they were still in.

Eventually, as Fear was playing his third round of Space Invaders, the four heard a door upstairs open. The emotions and Riley all turned to face the stairs, causing the purple figure to lose his last life. But he was too preoccupied with the older girl walking slowly down the steps, her watchful eyes studying the shenanigans in the living room below.

"H-hey." Riley greeted her cousin, trying to sound as collected as possible.

The older girl entered the room and stared at the three smokey shadows on the floor, one wrapped around the old Atari controller. Her face displayed a look of astonishment and awe as she glanced at the beasts, the tv, and finally at her cousin.

"Are they...' Her voice cracked as she spoke, a sign that she had been sleeping only moments ago. "Can they actually play that thing?"

Riley nodded. "Y-yeah." She stuttered, then turned back to Fear. "It's okay, you can keep playing."

The emotions, still not used to being watched by the other woman, slowly turned back towards the television. Fear used his foot to start a new round, and began to shoot down the little blocky aliens with his crudely modeled green tank. Riley's cousin watched as he swiftly took out the entire armada, even nabbing the extra points that flew by in the flying saucer. At a loss for words, she could only bring herself to shake her head. It was just too weird. The older girl turned and exited the room, crossing onto the wood floor of the kitchen.

"What are you doing?" Riley asked, watching the other girl to make sure she wasn't making any phone calls.

"I'm making dinner." She stated as if it should've been obvious. She turned and shot a confused stare at the tiny beasts on the floor. "Did, uh, those things want some dinner too?"

The young girl couldn't help but smile at the question. It really sounded like her cousin was beginning to warm up to the idea of the emotions staying with them. "Yeah!" She beamed, looking over at Disgust and Anger, who also looked excited. "They don't really eat much, but they'd love that!"

"Alright." The older girl sighed, grabbing a few things out of the cupboard. As she went to pull something out from under the sink, she paused, hearing a strange sound from outside. Confused, she looked out the window above the sink that overlooked the backyard.

"Huh..." She grunted, looking confused and perhaps a little annoyed. "That certainly isn't ours."

"What?" Riley called back, slowly rising to her feet.

"It's that cat, Chips." The cousin responded with a shake of her head. "It's tearing through the backyard. It must've seen a rat or something."

That's when Riley felt her blood go cold. She suddenly remembered where she had heard that pitch-black description before.


	24. An Unwelcome Visitor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With this chapter, I am now caught up. This means that updates will come far slower, and chapters will only be added one at a time.   
> I ask that if you have the chance, please leave your comments, as they help encourage me to write. I also encourage you to contact me if you have any questions or if you would like to know my username for other sites.   
> Thanks for reading!

"What do you mean there's another of those bug-things outside?"

Riley, frustrated that her cousin was holding her up when one of her emotions was in peril, slowly raked her fingers through her hair and clenched her teeth. As much as she wanted to ignore the other woman and chase the cat without her approval, she knew that kind of erratic behavior may trigger a phone call to her parents. She tried her best to stay calm, but still move quickly to get outside as soon as humanly possible.

"The neighbor! The crazy gardener who owns Chips!" Riley was having trouble controlling her chaotic thoughts into cohesive sentences. "He said that the cat was chasing one yesterday! A bug! A black shadowy bug! Everyone sees them as shadows! Like you! The cat is chasing the creature!"

The young girl lurched forward and grasped the handle to the back door, gazing with pleading eyes at her relative. But her cousin responded with a sharp glare. "You can't just go chasing the neighbors cat!" She shouted back. "You'll give that man a heart attack, if he doesn't call the cops on you first that is!"

The emotions, having heard the commotion, had wandered closer into the kitchen, abandoning the Atari to cycle through colorful pre-game screens. Anger and Disgust only came as close as the dining table, keeping a distance between themselves and the woman who saw them as monsters. Fear, who had been listening to every word of the conversation between the girls, was growing more nervous about the situation outside. Worried more about the emotion being hunted then of the argumentative older woman, he had walked far further forward, standing just beside Riley. He stared hard at the back door in front of him, anxious eyes open wide, as if he could see through the wood if he just looked hard enough.

"Please! They might not have time!" The younger girl begged, tightening her grip on the handle. "I need to save them!"

Folding her arms, her cousin only shook her head.

Time was quickly running out. Riley threw her head back and wheezed loud, stressed cry of frustration. "Okay! I wont chase the cat!" She pleaded. "But at LEAST let me make sure he's not chasing one! At LEAST let me shoo it from the yard! Please!"

Knowing the argument wasn't going to end soon, the cousin released a long sigh. She didn't understand why, but apparently these bug things meant the world to her young relative. Seeing the stress and tension in her glistening blue eyes, the older girl finally gave in. "Fine!" She growled. "But do it quietly!"

Her cousin had just barely finished her sentence when the younger girl tore the door wide open, almost hitting the tiny emotion standing beside her. She took a step forward, shoving the screen door as far open as it would go. She stood there, half in the yard with the screen held open, scanning the ground for any signs of life.

The blotchy grey cat was huddled by the fence just next to the open door, sniffing at a tiny divot in the wood. Its tail flicked quickly behind it, it's posture still tensed, as if whatever it had been chasing had only just escaped its wrath. Upon hearing the sound of the door flying open, the cat whipped it's head around, green glowing eyes gazing at the girl in the doorway, tail still quickly squirming behind.

If the cat had been chasing an emotion, Riley thought, it had no doubt run off through the gap in the fence. Frustrated, she knew that she couldn't go chasing after it. Not only had she promised her cousin, but the neighbor would no doubt hear the commotion and come to investigate. She vented her dulled anger on the cat. "Get outta here, Chips!" The girl barked.

But Chips hadn't been paying attention to the girl. Its eyes had locked on to something else in the open doorway. A tiny lavender figure, glowing softly, nervously clutching his hands together. But to the cats eyes, it was another of those smokey black bugs, and it wasn't about to let this one get away.

Without warning, the feline charged, ignoring the cries of the girl as it plowed its way into the house. Fear's eyes constricted as the animal suddenly approached. He let out a piercing scream as he turned and took off as fast as he could on his stubby legs, the cat hot on his tail. He sprinted at top speed, weaving between the dining table legs and blindly barreling into the living room, passing the other two emotions who could do nothing but look on in terror.

"Chips! No!" Riley shrieked, watching in horror as the cat hunted down the fearful figure, hearing its extended claws clicking against the wood floor. She quickly joined the chase, trying her hardest to grab the animal away from her panicking emotion. But the two smaller creatures were far faster than she. It was up to Fear to escape the beast.

Fear, still screaming with every exhale, could hear the cat closing in on him. No matter how quickly he ran, he was still slower than the agile animal. Running no longer an option, he had to switch tactics; he needed cover. He ran for the first hiding place he had known.

Leaping the Atari console in a single athletic bound, Fear darted into the shadow beneath the tv stand. Chips followed close behind, short enough to stuff himself beneath the wood as well. He reached out a paw, claws extended, and went to grab the strange black creature. But just before its furred hand connected with the bugs body, Fear vaulted into the tiny hidden compartment with a final fearful shout, diving into the fibrous debris and curling as tight as he could on himself.

Due to the awkward location of the hidden hole, the cat was unable to get a paw into the panel, no matter how hard it had tried to contort its shoulders. Frustrated, it leaned its face in, the scent of the creature hitting its nostrils, and it breathed a furious hiss, coating Fear in a fine mist of saliva and scaring him into screaming yet again.

The time the cat had spent crammed beneath the tv stand was just enough for Riley to catch up to it. She grabbed the blotchy grey feline by its waist and yanked it out and away from the terrified emotion. Chips, startled from being nabbed from behind, glanced behind itself to check the identity of its captor. Recognizing Riley, it cooed a nonchalant meow in greeting, as if trying to pretend it had done nothing wrong.

"Stupid cat!" Riley panted, storming to the back door with the limp cat in her arms. "No, Chips! Stay out!" She heaved the animal out the open door. Chips slowly turned to give the girl an apologetic murmur before the young girl, exhausted and angry, slammed the back door closed.

"Geez, Riley!" Her cousin mumbled, still trying to take in all of what just happened.

"Geez nothing!" She shouted back, quickly making her way back to the tv sand. "He could've killed him!"

The young girl turned off the Atari and pushed it to one side with her foot before kneeling down in front of the wooden stand. She awkwardly leaned forward and wriggled beneath the furniture, feeling around with a free hand for the slot in the side. She could hear soft sobbing coming from within, cries from the creature of pure anxiety who had just barely escaped the encounter with his life.

"Come on." She coaxed, using her calm voice and pressing her fingers beside the panels entrance. "You're okay. The cat's gone."

Though she couldn't see him, she immediately felt the two little shoes of the timid figure stumble onto her palm. Once centered, he collapsed, laying face down inside her hand, lanky arms wrapped around her palm. He buried his face in her skin, shaking and sobbing violently as Riley pulled her hand and her body back out from under the stand.

"Shh... It's okay. You're safe." Riley whispered to the figure in her palm. She gently reached out her index finger from her other hand and slowly ran it down Fear's long back. His loud sobbing hushed to soft whimpering, and she could feel his muscles begin to relax. "You're gonna be alright."

With Fear now significantly quieter, Riley stood up to take the creature back to her bedroom. Before she ascended the stairs, she suddenly remembered the other two emotions, who had remained surprisingly silent during the entire ordeal. She wandered over, scooped Anger and Disgust up into her free hand, then made her way to the second floor.

Her cousin watched the younger girl and sighed.

Riley gently pulled the bathroom door most of the way shut and made her way back into the hallway.

During his daring escape from the cat, Fear had managed to get mighty dirty. The moisture from his own perspiration had mixed with the dust in his wooden hiding space, leaving him coated in crud. Knowing the warm water would sooth his frazzled nerves, Riley had offered to set the sink up as a shower once again for the little creature, and he had quickly accepted.

She made her way back to her bedroom, wiping a tired hand across her forehead. But as she neared the door, she overheard her own name being spoken by one of the emotions inside. Curious as to what the other two would be discussing about herself, she tiptoed to the wall and listened closely to the tiny voices within.

"You need to get a hold of yourself before Riley sees." She heard Disgust grunt.

"Yeah, right." Anger scoffed. "She wouldn't listen to me anyway."

"Maybe if you actually talked to her for once, she'd get to know you and be able to communicate with you. You could tell her what you wanted instead of complaining that she didn't know. What a concept!"

"She wouldn't care about me!" She could hear Anger beginning to shout. "She's too busy babying that sniveling coward!"

Hearing the crimson creature screaming about her, Riley felt her face fall. Did he really think that about her? Had she come across as uncaring?

"Wait a minute." Disgust suddenly announced. "I don't believe this! Your jealous of how close Riley is with Fear, arent you?"

"What!?" Riley could hear the surprise and embarrassment in Anger's voice. "No! I just think that if she knew that this whole ordeal was his fault, if she knew what that rat did to her, she wouldn't be so buddy-buddy with him! The selfish coward threw us all out of place in an attempt to save his own behind! And when she finds out-"

"But she's not gonna find out because you're gonna keep your giant mouth shut!" Disgust snapped back.

"And why should I!? I would think she deserves to know!"

"Because she doesn't need you to paint Fear as some heartless monster out to wreak havoc on our lives! The poor girl doesn't need that kind of stress, and with you-"

Riley didn't hear the end of Disgusts sentence. She trudged off down the hallway, a hand to her head, taking in this new information and rethinking what she thought she knew about these creatures.

This whole thing... It was Fear's fault? And the others, they knew this whole time, and they didn't hadn't told her? All those times he had reacted so negatively when the incident was brought up... But Fear seemed so fragile, so innocent. He wouldn't do that to her, would he?

Her dulled mind raced with questions. Questions about the creatures. Questions about the incident. Questions about herself.

How many more secrets, she wondered, are these things keeping from me?


	25. Nagging Thoughts

Riley sat on the floor at the far end of the hall, her head between her knees. It felt like someone had strapped a weight to her chest, a new burden for her to carry. She sighed, her muted mind trying desperately to assemble a response to the situation. But it was no use. Her thoughts were still broken, her feelings still muffled. So she found the only way she could react to the new situation was with disbelief.

No, it couldn't have been Fear, she thought. He would never try to hurt me. He would never ruin my life like this. It had to be something else, a mix up, a misunderstanding. Fear cares about me. And I care about him... right?

She threw her head back and tried to relax her tensed muscles. Worrying about what happened and how the creatures got here wasn't going to help her mind get fixed. She just had to stay focused so she could find the final two emotions and bring her shattered psyche back together. It wouldn't be long now. After all, they knew at least one of them was nearby, trying its best to survive with Chips in constant pursuit. And as for the fifth one, it would no doubt show up soon. After all, Riley thought, all the others had appeared in the same general area. By that logic, the last one couldn't have gotten far.

While she was still pondering, a voice cut through the silence.

"Riley..?" Fear called out from within the bathroom.

The sound of his distinct voice felt like a dagger in the young girls heart. But she wouldn't let on what she knew. Fear's trust was so delicate. If he thought for a second that the young girl doubted his intentions, he would be off on his own in an instant. Besides, Riley didn't want to make any accusations without hearing the whole story from an unbiased party. So she kept her new knowledge to herself as she slowly rose to her feet to collect the emotion from the sink.

She entered the bathroom with a fake smile plastered on her face. Perched on the corner of the counter was Fear, clean and fully clothed. He met her smile with a small, nervous grin of his own, but it faded quickly. He knew in an instant that Riley's expression was insincere.

"Wh-what's wrong?" He asked, his face falling into its normal worried expression.

Riley was a little taken aback at how quickly the little creature had seen right through her. But she still wasn't ready to confront him on the matter. She maintained the faux happy face as she turned off the tap and offered her hand to the figure. "Nothing." She forced a chipper tone.

The little lavender figure remained unconvinced, but decided the girl must still be upset about the feline attack that happened earlier. Too scared to prod, he accepted the lie and stepped into the girls palm, securing himself for the ride back to the room.

As Riley walked the emotion across the hall, she couldn't help but wonder if the being she held in her hand was in fact responsible for the complete collapse of her delicate mind. She shook her head, reminding herself that now wasn't the time to think about it.

When she entered the bedroom, she noticed Disgust and Anger had stopped talking. Both seemed visibly upset, no doubt from the subject matter of their conversation. They each sat atop one of the makeshift beds, their arms folded, their faces in a mild scowl, facing away from the other. But they both turned to the young girl as she entered.

Fear looked to the floor expectantly, believing he was about to be put on the ground with the others. But the hand he was in didn't lower. Instead, Riley extended her other arm to the hard wood, offering this second hand to Anger and Disgust.

The green emotion raised an eyebrow at the gesture. "Wait, where are we going?" She asked, confused.

"Downstairs." Riley stated, watching the figures climb into her palm. "We're going to eat dinner with my cousin."

__________________________________________

The older girl was just pulling the finished meal out of the oven when she saw the younger girl amble down the stairs and into the dining room. In her hands were the three shadowy bugs, whom she released onto the already set kitchen table. The older girl couldn't help but shudder. She could tell that her relative was indeed very attached to these things, and she knew just how intelligent they were. And though she tried, she still didn't like them. She didn't like the way they looked, she didn't like their constant hissing, and she didn't like keeping the secret. But she was the only other person who knew about them, so she wanted to learn what she could.

Riley sat herself down in a chair and the three emotions seated themselves on the table near her. Her cousin, protected by oven mitts, brought over the still steaming tray, six plump and perfectly made enchiladas sizzling within. It was the older girls specialty, and she proudly scooped two onto her own plate and two onto the younger girl's.

As she sat, she glanced at the shadowy creatures and tilted her head. "So..." She mumbled, playing with her fork while she waited for the food to cool. "How do you... feed them?"

Riley quickly and deftly used her fork to separate three tiny hunks of an enchilada and scooched them to one side of the plate to cool. "I dunno." She shrugged, confused at the question. "You just give them food. They feed themselves."

The older girl put a hand to her forehead. "But, like, how do you know what they can and can't eat?"

"They can eat anything I eat." Riley prodded the food with a finger to check the temperature. "If I like it, they like it."

Her cousin didn't understand. How could she? She had no idea what the beings really were. She shook her head and began to slowly pick at her meal, her mind racing with questions about the things. But mostly, she was curious as to what her relative saw in them. She wanted to know why the young girl was so determined to care for these things, why she was so determined to get them home safe. She had noticed Riley had not been acting quite like herself this entire week. Was it because of these beasts? These were things she wanted to know.

Deciding the food had cooled enough, Riley picked up the three hunks and handed them to the three emotions. Anger and Fear took theirs without hesitation. Disgust stared at the hunk of enchilada with a slight grimace, watching a bead of sauce drip from the tortilla wrapping.

"No... No forks...?" She asked, sounding disappointed.

Riley chuckled. "No. No forks. You'll just have to use your hands, I'm afraid."

The older girl watched as the third black bug hissed a response before taking the chunk of food offered to it. Riley looked at her cousin and smiled.

"Sorry. She's kinda picky." She shrugged.

Her cousin blinked. "She is..?" She questioned, putting down her utensil. "They have different personalities?"

"Oh yeah." Riley nodded, taking a few quick bites of her dinner. "They're very different." She swallowed and gestured to the first bug, sitting on her left. "This one's really shy. He doesn't like if things are too big or too loud. And he's really fast."

Fear paused. He turned to Riley and gazed at her with his huge, bright eyes, beaming an embarrassed smile.

Riley pointed to the next of the black beings on the table. "She's a little fussier, but she's also really dainty and clever."

Disgust smirked, flipping some of her emerald hair and batting her long eyelashes. She looked at the older girl across the table, but was met only with a confused stare.

Finally, the younger girl pointed towards the third emotion, sitting furthest away from herself. "And he's..." Riley muttered. "Well, he doesn't really talk to me... He's kind of grumpy. I feel like I don't know anything about him."

Anger's fiery red eyes darted to the young girl. He tried to keep his expression neutral, but one could just barely see the look of disappointment and sorrow that crossed his face. He turned away, upset more with himself than anyone, and continued to eat his ration, emitting the quietest little growls.

The older girl stared at each of the trio of monsters in front of her. The smokey trails their bodies emitted completely hid any visible shape or outline. She looked up at the young girl. "They really look different to you..?" She leaned her head onto her hands.

Riley looked back down at the emotions. Each one produced a glow of a different color around their forms. Each one had a unique face and body structure. They looked so different from one another that it was hard to believe they were related at all. But only Riley ever saw them that way. It seemed that the whole rest of the world saw them as these mysterious black clouds. Since she was the only one who didn't, perhaps it was her that was seeing them wrong. But she was sure of it; she could see them for what they really were.

"Maybe..." She spoke slowly, thinking aloud. "Maybe you're... not meant to see them."

\-------------------------------------------------------------

The rest of the dinner had been mostly quiet and uneventful. The older girl, her mind trying to process the onslaught of new information it had been given, had ceased her question asking. She already had too much to think about. Riley, wanting to keep the emotions on her cousins good side, had taken the three away immediately after the meal. Perhaps after enough of these brief visits between the creatures and the older girl, they would grow to understand each other. But it would take time. Riley didn't want to rush anything.

She retreated back to her bedroom, leaving only for a moment to construct a third tiny bed out of the materials in the hall closet. All three now had their own beds; their own personal property. Anger had immediately laid down on his new mattress, happy to have the space all his own. In only a few moments, he had drifted into sleep, exhausted from a very long and very tiring day.

Riley, not ready to sleep just yet, had resumed reading her book. Disgust and Fear busied themselves with things around the room. They found a stack of cards, each with a photo of a hockey player on the front with their stats on the back, and they made a game of using them as flash cards, quizzing each other on the various facts about the player.

Eventually, the sun crawled lazily down the sky and sank into the horizon. As the natural light began to fade, the the young girl and her two still conscious emotions prepared for the night. Riley changed to her pajamas, and the three settled into their respective beds.

Their day had been a hectic one. They had recovered a third emotion, yet failed to earn its trust. They had been discovered by the older girl of the house, but were able to convince her they meant no harm. And they had learned where to find yet another emotion, even if they didn't quite know how. Disgust and Fear thought over all that had happened, as they snuggled into their pillows. It wasn't long before they, like Anger, succumbed to their exhaustion.

But Riley didn't fall asleep immediately. There was something on her mind. Something she couldn't forget. Something she had tried so hard not to think about, but that had continued to resurface in her mind. Her lamp still on, she stared at the sleeping purple figure in the bed closest to her own. Who was he really? Was the Fear that she had known a lie? Was it all a clever facade?

It would be hours before the girl finally slipped into slumber. But by then, her thoughts had taken form, giving birth to a nightmare.


	26. Fear Your Nightmares

Something was horribly wrong.

Riley took a few slow, cautious steps forward, creeping further into the room. It had taken her a while to recognize the surrounding area as her own living room. The ceilings were ten feet higher, the walls spread far further apart, the whole house huge, cavernous, and dark. She looked ahead of her, straining to see into the kitchen. But the foreboding blackness seemed to go on forever. This was her house, but it was some horrific, mutated version that more resembled a twisted half-mansion half-cave.

The more steps she took, the longer the walls grew, making it appear as though she wasn't moving at all. Misty smoke swirled around her ankles, the sound of the moaning wooden panels rang in her ears. Why was she here? And where was she going?

Riley began to hear the gentle sound of something dripping. She turned to the wall, squinting to see in the poor lighting. As her eyes adjusted, she began to make out a crude drawing scribbled on the wall, a water leak from above streaking down and dripping to the floor. It was Fear's drawing of Sadness, colored on the wall with crayons. It looked exactly the actual artwork, all except for the face, which seemed to be twisted into a look of horror.

"Riley." The drawing of Sadness began to move like a poorly animated cartoon as it called out to the young girl in a familiar voice; Riley's voice. The girl gasped and backed up to the other wall, leaning against the cold wood.

"Riley!" The same voice called out, this time from behind her. Riley whipped around to see that on the wall opposite Sadness was Fear's drawing of Joy, again with a look of shock and terror plastered on it's face.

"What do you want!?" Riley yelled, cowering between the two crayon scribbles.

"Where are you Riley?" The Sadness drawing moaned. "Why haven't you rescued us?"

The young girl felt herself begin to quiver, cold sweat forming on her face and neck. "I'm trying!" She cried, her voice cracking in fear. "I'm trying so hard!"

"You must find us fast." This time, the voice came from the drawing of Joy. "He's coming. He'll destroy everything. He'll destroy you."

Riley skittered back a few frightened steps. "Who!? Who's coming!?" She pleaded, looking back and forth to both pictures.

Suddenly, a thunderous, fearsome roar echoed through the open hallway, rattling the furniture and picture frames, shaking years of dust from the walls. Something was approaching from behind, something awful. It crept forward menacingly, the ground shaking with every step. Riley turned in terror to look, but it was still too far away. All she could see was endless darkness.

"He's here." The Sadness scribble chanted in a monotone voice.

"Run, Riley." The drawing of Joy commanded. "Run before it's too late."

A second monstrous shout boomed behind her, and the girl took off in the opposite direction. She blindly sprinted into the darkness ahead of her, the voices of the scribbles becoming quieter the further she ran. She had no idea what was behind her, no idea where she was going. But she didn't care. She was scared. She was more terrified than she had ever been in her life. All she could think about was escaping.

The hall began to narrow, the walls closing in around her. The further she made it down the hall, the more decrepit her surroundings became. Cobwebs decorated the dust furniture, wallpaper and wood chips hung from tears and breaks in the walls. Still she pressed on. She could tell the beast behind was moving slowly. She had already gained quite a distance on it. She hoped and pleaded she would be safe.

Out of nowhere, the path forward abruptly ended. A new path split, one to the left, the other to the right. Riley stood in between, gazing down both, trying to decide which, if any, lead to safety. But there was only darkness down either side. She whined, panting, pleading for a sign.

From out of the darkness on the path to the left, two figures emerged. One was about Riley's size, the other a tad shorter. Both were running, drawing ever closer, their screaming voices a crescendo as the approached. The nearer they came, the better Riley could see them. The taller one had a trim, feminine figure. The shorter, a blocky, stout shape. It was Disgust and Anger, now human sized, with sweat pouring down thier faces, sprinting for their lives.

"He's after us!" Anger shouted in a panicked version of his own growly voice. "We're not gonna make it!"

"Just keep running!" Disgust sobbed, tears burning her eyes and obscuring her vision. "We just have to keep running!"

Riley stumbled backward just before the two giant emotions collided with her. They seemed to pay her no notice as they flew past the three-way intersection, focused only on fleeing. The young girl was just about to call out to them when she saw what was chasing them. A giant, clawed, shadowy hand stretched behind them atop an ever-growing arm, claws open, attempting to snatch the two panicked creatures. As it too passed, it left a giant, pitch black arm in the center of the hall like a snake tail behind the clawed head.

The screams of the two fleeing emotions as the beast drew closer invigorated Riley. She had to protect her emotions! Beside her, leaned against the wall, was her hockey stick. Without thinking, she grabbed the dusty weapon and, screaming, quickly advanced on the dark arm ahead, hockey stick held high.

With all her might, she brought the stick down on the blackness. Instead of colliding, it cleaved straight through, as if the arm were made of a dense smoke rather than flesh and bone. The giant arm emitted a pained screech at a near-deafening volume. The two split ends writhed and squirmed in agony before fading away into the darkness.

Satisfied that the beast was dead and gone, Riley threw the stick to the ground and ran in the direction of the two emotions. But as she approached them, she discovered she had been too late. She could see their exhausted bodies laying on the floor ahead, she could hear them moaning in pain and fatigue.

She stood above the two fallen creatures, their bodies bruised and weak despite the briefness attack they had endured. Their eyes were shut tight, their breathing labored. Somewhere deep inside them, they were injured beyond repair. The glow of their bodies had nearly ceased. It looked like this was their end.

"Guys!" Riley knelt down to them, tears and sweat running down her cheeks.

"It was all his fault." Anger growled, trying in vain to move his arms. "He's out to end us all."

Riley reached out to put a hand on his dusty red face when she noticed that he was slowly shrinking. A quick glance revealed Disgust was as well. They were shrinking smaller and smaller, their color becoming grayer and grayer.

"We should have told Riley." Disgust quietly cried, her body now at half size. "We should have saved ourselves."

"Guys! Guys, wait!" Riley sobbed, watching helplessly as they shrunk to their tiny size the girl was used to, then even smaller. "Please! Don't leave! I'm here!" They kept shrinking until Riley couldn't even see them. She reached her hands out and franticly slammed them on the ground, trying desperately to feel for their microscopic forms. But they were gone.

Riley didn't have time to mourn. Another piercing roar rattled the walls, this time far louder than before. The beast was just around the corner, slowly closing in on its prey. Riley knew she should get up, she knew she should run. But pure terror caused her whole body to freeze. She could only watch as the giant monster rounded the hall and crept up to her until it's twenty foot frame loomed just in front of her. It paused, looking down at the girl, studying her face with an awkward, off center smile.

The beast was a deep black and purple. Two giant, bloodshot eyes topped it's long head, along with a long, pointed nose and a disturbingly huge mouth filled with sharp, poorly arranged fangs. Its slender, snake-like body was held up by two short, thick, muscular legs, ending in what appeared to be jagged hooves. It supported it's awkward hunch with two disgustingly long, thin arms, topped with black, foot long claws. Two more arms seemed to originate from somewhere around the back of the beasts neck, black and smokey, one ending abruptly just before the elbow. This, Riley decided, was the arm she had cut, the arm that had taken the lives of her two emotions. Black spikes grew from the monsters spine, tearing holes through its already tattered clothing. It smiled at her, saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth, fangs bared, bloodshot eyes locked on to her own.

"Riley-" It chanted in a distorted, horrible version of Fear's voice that echoed in a three part harmony. It reached a slim, clawed hand out to the girls face. "Riley-. It's me. It's your friend."

Riley had seen enough. Before his thick black nails could touch her flesh she was on her feet, bolting away at light speed down the dark and twisted hallway. She dashed as fast as her feet could carry her, too scared to shout or cry or do much more than gasp for air. She had to escape the beast. She couldn't wind up like the others.

"Riley!" It screeched as it began to take chase, crawling along the wood like some disturbed insect, leaving claw marks in the floor boards beneath. "Don't you want to stay? Don't you trust me?"

The young girl continued to run at breakneck speeds, not about to stop for anything. The beast was huge, but it was slow. She hoped and prayed that she could outrun it. She just wanted to escape this nightmare.

This nightmare.

"This is all a dream!" Riley screamed through gasps. "I just have to wake up!"

Normally when the young girl had deduced that what she was experiencing was a dream, she would wake up. But this time, the nightmare continued. Still running, she closed her eyes and tried to focus on escaping this false land, but she couldn't. Something was wrong. She couldn't wake up.

The beast behind emitted a horrible, mocking laugh that shook the ground. "The fire!" He laughed madly. "The fire is burning!"

The beast, still following behind, inhaled a gulp of air, then exhaled an inferno of flames, coating the floor, walls, and furniture in bright red fire. Black smoke billowed all around, the dry wood cracked and hissed, the heat became so intense. Riley screamed, now being chased also by the flames, as the house went up around her.

To her horror, the end of the hall came into focus. There was no where left to turn, no where left to run. She slammed into the far wall at top speed, hoping perhaps to burst through, but to no avail. She turned, panting, sweating, terrified, praying for her life to be spared.

From the flickering flames all around, the monster emerged, slowly drawing closer and closer. All around it's gigantic figure, ash rained down like black confetti almost as if to applaud his appearance. It laughed maniacally as it closed the gap between itself and the girl, smiling the same wicked grin of gnarled fangs. Again, it reached out a freakishly long arm, rubbing its claws along Riley's cheek. "Stay with me Riley-" It chanted in its demonic voice. "We're friends, remember?"

With the last of her energy, and with every ounce of strength and hope, the girl made her final move. She screeched at the top of her lungs, so loud that she flexed every abdominal muscle to project her voice further.

"THIS IS JUST A DREAM. I JUST NEED TO WAKE UP."

Riley awoke with a start, soundlessly bolting upright in her bed. She was soaked in sweat, shivering in terror, and trying desperately to catch her breath. But she was awake. She was safe in her room. The house was it's normal size and dimensions, the walls clear of sentient drawings, and the halls void of fire and horrible monsters. She breathed a sigh of relief. She was safe.

She turned to the three little beds on the floor, focusing on the one closest to her. Curled up beneath the tissue covers was Fear, holding one of the cotton balls to his chest, breathing in sleepy sighs. Not a monster, just a scared, fearful little creature who often let his nerves get the better of him.

She stared long and hard at him, as if checking to make sure he wasn't a threat. But it had only been her imagination running wild. Riley still didn't know the story behind the creatures ejection, and she wasn't about to allow herself to judge the poor creature on what she overheard any longer.

As she stared, she began to hear something. She noticed a tiny sound coming from somewhere closer to the bedroom window. Though the sound was faint in the quiet of the night, she could still make out what it was; a hushed, mournful sobbing from a tiny creature.

That's when she noticed that one of the little beds was empty.


	27. Behind the Facade

Riley sat silently listening to the gentle crying. It was so very quiet; she could barely hear it over the sound of the lazy breeze beyond the window, rustling through the trees. She strained to focus on the noise in an attempt to pinpoint whose voice it was, but it was no use. Whatever was emitting the sound obviously didn't want to be heard.

Curious and filling with a muted sense of pity, the young girl slowly removed the sheets from her body, trying her hardest to remain undetected. She carefully swung her legs around and placed herself on the floor, which had grown rather cold in the cool night air. Making sure not to trample the tiny beds below, she tiptoed trepadatiously towards the center of the room, closer and closer to the tiny whimpering and the creature that produced it.

A figure came into view, illuminated by a streak of moonlight shining through the window. It was turned to the night sky, seated on the cold wood floor, arms wrapped around its center, embracing its own form for comfort. It hadn't noticed the approaching human, too consumed by its own pain and suffering, unable to hear the gentle footsteps over its tears and quivering sighs.

Riley found herself briefly unable to approach. After all, the creature seated in the column of light was the one that just didn't seem to get along with her. All previous attempts to bond with the angry emotion had only ended in failure. But she couldn't stand idly by when it was clear he was hurting so. Something huge had to be eating away at his insides for such a proud creature to sink so far into depression. Though she had known the figure for less than a day, she knew this no where near normal behavior for him.

Finally, she crept forward the final few steps, still managing to avoid detection. Standing just behind his blocky frame, she urged herself to say something to break the ice.

"Anger..?" Her voice trickled out as a whisper.

The creature, startled, immediately whipped around to face what had called its name. He made contact only momentarily, allowing Riley a brief glimpse of his surprised and tear streaked face, before quickly turning back around, roughly grinding his brick-like fists into his eyes. He sniffed, trying to wipe his face of any and all evidence of what he had been doing, before finally mustering a response.

"Wh-what- What are you doing?" He grunted, attempting to keep his voice its normal surly tone. "Shouldn't you be asleep?"

The young girl slowly seated herself just to the side of the crimson creature, only for him to scooch himself in the opposite direction. She sighed, crossing her legs and leaning slightly forward so the tiny figure could hear without her having to speak up. "I heard you crying." She admitted.

"I wasn't crying." Anger growled through tightly clenched teeth. "I'm fine... Just, go to bed."

Not fooled for a second, Riley exhaled a quiet scoff. "Then what are you doing up this late?" She challenged, raising one eyebrow.

"Nothing!" The creature snapped back, clearly becoming agitated. "I'm just trying to think of how we're all gonna get back to headquarters, okay? Now go to sleep!"

Riley, disappointing and frustrated, lowered her head slightly. "You know..." She leaned her elbows onto her knees. "Even though you don't like me, we're still gonna have to all work together to find the rest of you emotions. You could at least pretend to care."

The accusation struck a nerve in the creature. Without warning, unable to help himself, the small red figure broke down. He buried his face in his square palms, trying to prevent his cries from escaping, but to no avail. Years of pent up stress began to surface in an unstoppable torrent. All he could do was let the tears flow.

Taken aback by the reaction, the young girl tried to find a response to the situation, but her mind couldn't produce one. She only watched as he sobbed, unable to speak, unable to move.

Finally, the frustrated creature managed to pause his outburst. Hiccuping in sharp gulps of air, he turned his body to face the girl, lifting his head to gaze into her eyes, his heavy brow lifted into a look of shock and pain. "Y-you really..." His out of character stuttering making him sound more like Fear. "You really think th-that I... Hate you..?"

Riley only barely shrugged. Yeah, it really seemed like it. He never talked to her, he never explained anything that he had been through, he even avoided eye contact most of the time. What was she supposed to think?

Anger quickly turned his face down to the floor, his angry scowl returning to cover his deep hurting. "Well that's fine..." He grunted, taking in shaky breaths to avoid breaking down once again. "Everybody does. Why should you be any different..."

The young girl watched a single tear drip from his face to the floor. "What do you mean?" She asked gently, leaning forward.

"They're always upset with me." He gruffly wiped a hand across his eyes. "They're always telling me how I 'shouldn't have done that'. How I should 'just drop it'. I only ever stepped in because... because I just couldn't watch you get treated so poorly. But they always manage to make it sound like I'm trying to get us in trouble, like I'm trying to hurt you." He sniffed, putting his fingers over his eyes. "But I can't help it... It's all that I am. I never wanted to hurt any of us. Everyone thinks I do, but I don't hate any one of us."

Though he sounded like he was being honest, Riley had trouble believing that last bit. "Well..." She sighed "You could've fooled me. You really seem to despise Fear."

"But I don't!" Anger whipped his head around and shouted, ruby eyes gazing at her through layers of moisture. "I just... I couldn't... Argh!" He growled, punching the floor with a blocky fist. "I'm so... so stupid!" He hopped onto his feet and, with tears falling from his eyes, stomped to the nearby wall and slammed himself into it repeatedly. "I can't ever just admit when I'm wrong! Whenever I f-feel like something's my fault, I find someone else to blame! Fear- He's just a scapegoat. He's too scared to fight back and I... I take advantage of him." Running out of furious energy, he slid down the wall and back to the floor, exhausted. "I let you believe he was a monster."

The image of the nightmare beast flashed in Riley's mind. But how? Anger didn't know that Riley overheard him! Did he..?

"H...How did-"

"You were shouting in your sleep." Anger finally admitted, sniffling. "You were shouting things about how he was out to destroy everything. About how he was a monster. That's what woke me up.

"But it wasn't Fear's fault. He was just scared. He did what he always does; he panicked. Sure, he broke the panel... But none of that electrocution nonsense would've happened if he wasn't worried about the fire. And that..." He took in a large breath of air, his voice beginning to crack. "That was... my fault. I started that fire. I broke us all apart. Nothing would've happened if it weren't for me. But I let myself blame Fear because... Because I was too ashamed to admit it."

Anger slowly crumbled onto his side, his face in a tight grimace, tears streaming across his cheeks. He wrapped his arms tightly around his middle again, squeezing himself with all his strength as if trying to physically punish himself. He laid there and wept, all his fury and all his frustration aimed at himself, but too exhausted to take it out on anything.

Riley was stunned at the sudden admission of guilt. But... she wasn't mad. In fact, she was sort of relieved to hear that no one had done it on purpose, like she thought. Whatever it was, it had all been an accident. She still wanted to learn the whole story, but now wasn't the time. She just felt better knowing that no one had meant for it to happen.

She reached a hand out to the fallen figure on the floor. Slowly, gently, she ran the tips of two fingers from the creatures neck down his back in a comforting motion. As she lifted her hand and repeated the action, she saw his glistening eyes snap open, locking on to her face. He kept his eyes focused on her as she pet him again and again, realizing that he had been forgiven. Finally, his eyes began to shut as a wave of relief and comfort washed over him.

"I'm sorry, Riley." He whispered in his usual gravely voice.

Riley smiled. "It's okay." She gently responded, pulling her hand back. "But I think there's someone else you should be apologizing to."

Anger sat himself back upright, exhaling a long, exhausted sigh. "I know." He growled. "I feel horrible for what I did to Fear. But I don't think I can... I really am sorry, but... I just... It's so hard to-"

A sudden sniveling startled the two. Anger quickly turned, and he and Riley stared at the other figure that had silently appeared during the conversation.

Realizing that they had heard him, he quietly approached, entering the stream of light on the ground, revealing his lanky form. His hands were tightly clenched on each other, his eyebrows raised, his hair-like appendage hanging low. He wiped a single tear from his huge bright eyes as he shuffled over to the blocky emotion.

"Y-y-you really..." Fear stuttered uncontrollably. "You really don't... don't blame me for what happened..?"

Embarrassed, Anger quickly dodged the question. "How long have you been there?" He grunted.

Before he could do anything to stop it, the tall, nervous creature embraced his angry colleague in a tight grip, overjoyed to be forgiven. Begrudgingly, Anger just barely returned the hug, placing gentle pats on the slimmer figures back.

"Alright, alright." He grumbled. "You can let me go now."

Fear released the smaller emotion, taking a step backward bearing a nervous yet relieved smile. Anger, uncomfortable in any and all social interactions, only turned away.

"Well..." The red creature rubbed a hand on his thick neck. "It's late, and I'm tired. I'm going back to sleep."

The lavender figure nodded in agreement. The two coworkers, their brotherly bond restored, started towards their respective beds by the other end of the room.

Riley smiled and slowly rose to her feet. As she gently crossed the wood floor to her own bed, she glanced at the clock perched on her nightstand. The glowing numbers read 3:10am, far too early for any of them to be awake. Suddenly feeling more fatigued with the knowledge of the current time, Riley yawned, flopping onto her mattress and burying herself in the warm blankets.

She turned and watched as the two creatures did the same, careful not to wake the third emotion in the makeshift bed between theirs. Though his face looked almost the same as it always did, Riley could tell that Anger was at ease, finally coming to terms with the situation they all were in. It had taken him suffering a complete mental breakdown, which she was sure never would've happened if not for the extreme circumstances of being so far from home, but as he laid himself down and turned to look Riley in the eyes, she could tell that she finally had earned the gruff emotions trust.

"Good night, Anger." Fear chirped in a happy yet sleepy tone.

Anger grunted a chuckle. "'night." He mumbled.

Happy to hear her emotions finally getting along, Riley closed her eyes and smiled, drifting quickly into slumber. Free from nightmares, she enjoyed a quiet, restful sleep.

"Riley. Come on, Riley. Wake up."

The young girls eyes fluttered open, her vision blurry after hours of inactivity. She groaned, stretching her aching limbs, and began to focus on the form above. As her mind began to return to consciousness, she realized that the form was that of her cousin, standing just above her bed with a hand on the young girls shoulder.

"Yeah? What's up?" She yawned, struggling to lift her head.

The older girl didn't respond immediately. Instead, she slowly sat herself down at the foot of the bed, folding her hands in her lap. Something was wrong. Riley could tell that right away.

Snapping awake, the younger girl quickly looked to the floor, worried that something had happened to the fragile creatures. But all three were present. In fact, they were all fully awake and alert, standing at attention by a leg of the bed frame, as if they too could tell that there was something the matter.

Her cousin let out a long sigh. "Riley." She spoke slowly in a calm voice. "Chips was in the backyard this morning."

Riley sat up, her face filled with concern. "Yeah?" Her voice shook ever so slightly. "What... What was he doing?"

"He was meowing for a good half hour before I finally went outside." She explained. "When I came out, he was pacing around the shed, meowing and sniffing at a crack in the wall. I shooed him away and took a quick look in the shed and..." Her story abruptly stopped.

Riley felt her heart rate increase. "And?" She prodded impatiently. "What was it?"

Once again, her cousin sighed, beginning to nervously pick at her own nails. "Well... It was one of your little black bug things. It was laying in the corner on the floor. It must've slipped in through the tiny crack in the wood."

Riley's face instantly lit up. She shot an excited smile to the three on the ground, who returned her eager gaze with their own, thrilled to hear that another emotion had been recovered. With a rush of adrenaline, Riley leapt to her feet. "That's great!" She giggled excitedly, quickly making her way to the door. "Let's go get-"

"Wait, Riley." Her cousin shouted, stopping the young girl in her tracks.

"What..?" She mumbled, equal parts confused and concerned.

"Riley, honey... I'm not you want to do that. I don't think it was alive..."


	28. Extinguished

I don't think it was alive.

It was like the whole world ground to a sudden halt. Riley could feel the blood drain from her head, a cold chill speed down her spine. She froze as her broken mind groped blindly for a response. Her eyes, now the size of saucers, were glued to her cousins face, studying her expression of empathy and understanding. She began to feel lightheaded, stumbling backwards a few steps to keep from losing her balance.

Her emotion couldn't be dead! Could it?

Perhaps, the young girl thought, it wasn't an emotion? What if it really was some form of black bug? But she was forced to quickly dismiss this thought. She knew her cousin could tell the difference between a true insect and what she described as a "shadowy demon bug". Then, was she sure it was... dead?

Riley turned to check how her other emotions had taken the news. Fear's eyes slowly rolled back, and he collapsed onto the hard wood floor. Disgust clasped her dainty hands to her mouth, green eyes glistening with tears. Anger, eyes wide, mouth agape, could only bring himself to shake his head. They couldn't accept that one of their coworkers, whom they had worked and lived with their entire lives, could be deceased. It just couldn't be so.

"Wh-what..." The young girl turned back to her cousin, placing a hand to her chest in an attempt to control her rapid breathing. "What do you mean?"

The other girl, unable to look her young relative in the eyes any longer, lowered her gaze, beginning to fuss with her own hands. "Well..." She shrugged. "I couldn't really see it through that smoke they make. But it was laying on the floor not moving. I tried talking to it like you do, but it didn't even hiss at all." She sighed and shook her head. "I even touched it. No response. I'm so sorry, Riley."

A sickly feeling twisted in the young girls stomach as the severity of the situation began to truly sink in. Even at his worst, Fear had still reacted to being touched. It really did sound like this emotion was... dead. What would that mean for Riley? Would she ever feel that feeling again? Would she still be able to return the others to her mind? Could she really function the rest of her life as an unfinished puzzle, missing one of the five key pieces?

"I... I have to go... I have to see it..." Riley said at last, a stern, focused expression taking hold of her face. "I just need to see for myself."

In an instant, the three emotions were up and at the girls ankles. They grabbed wildly at the tops of her socks, all talking at once over each other, begging to accompany the girl. They all wanted to see, too. They had to confirm with one hundred percent certainty that their colleague was indeed deceased.

Riley, careful not to hurt the creatures, lifted a foot and shook their small hands off of her. "Hey, hey!" She shouted, too worried about this fourth emotion to deal with their shenanigans. "No! You guys aren't coming! This isn't a parade!"

Shocked, disappointed, and somewhat hurt, the trio solemnly backed up, their faces falling.

"Look, I'm sorry." Riley knelt down to them. "I just... This is hard enough as it is. I'll bring them here for you to see, but I can't handle all of you going at once." She pointed at the lavender figure. "You'll start freaking out..." Her finger moved to the stout, red emotion. "And you'll try and break something."

Knowing full well that the young girl spoke the truth, the emotions were forced to agree. They sighed and nodded, accepting defeat.

"Well, c-could..." Fear stammered, tightly clenching his hands together. "Could you at least br-bring Disgust? I mean, just in case their not... not..."

Disgust, mildly surprised at the request, looked to Riley with an expectant glint in her emerald eyes.

Riley lowered her shoulders. It wasn't a bad idea to bring one of them along. And Disgust seemed to be the one least likely to add to the chaos. So the young girl nodded and reached her hand to the floor.

From atop the bed, the older girl had watched the entire interaction between her cousin and the tiny black bugs. It was still hard for her to believe that that hissing actually meant something, but knew at this point that it had to be true. Once the single beast was nestled in the young girls hand, the two cousins exchanged a solemn look, then began their trek to the fallen creature.

Riley stood in front of the old, aging structure, staring at the faded wooden door. She was trying her best to mentally prepare herself for what lay inside, but it was proving futile. Nothing could relieve the awful twisting feeling in her stomach, the tightness in her chest. She looked to the lime green figure resting in her palm for support, but the creature had only her own worried expression to offer. So she tried instead looking to the older girl who stood behind her, but she just looked away. Realizing that she had no where left to turn, Riley decided to get it over with.

She reached a hand out and eased the old door open with a creak. The morning sunlight quickly poured into the small space, illuminating the dusty mess of cobwebs and old tools stacked to the ceiling. The smell of aging wood and dirt hit her hard, stirring a cough from her throat. Riley's eyes anxiously scanned the room, quickly finding the tiny fallen creature by the wall immediately to her right.

It lay on its side, its back to the girl, motionless. The little flecks of light that made its skin were almost completely grey, emitting next to no light as they did in the other creatures. Its silky sundress, decorated with little bursts of color, was crusted in layers of filth and debris. Its cerulean blue hair a gross, matted disaster. The poor creature was in terrible shape, and showed no signs of life.

"Joy..!" The little figure in Riley's hand cried.

The young girl, completely at a loss as to what she should do, decided to let the emotion figure it out. Besides, it was clear that the green creature was anxious to assist its former coworker. As soon as the hand it was in met the rotting wood floor, she was off, running towards the other emotion, ignoring the cobwebs that clung to her ankles.

Disgust fell to her knees in a puff of dust just behind Joy's back. With a jolt of nervous energy, she reached her arms out and quickly rolled Joy's limp body over to face her. Upon gazing at the emotions ventral half, the green figure inhaled a sharp gasp and covered her mouth with her hands, feeling her insides go cold.

The tightly clumped particles that once made up the golden emotions face were incomplete. A giant crevasse of missing light specks ran from above Joy's left eye down her cheek and to her neck. Similar gashes were present up and down her exposed arms and legs, along with tiny tears in her clothing.

"Joy!" Disgust cried, tears trickling from her face and onto the figure below. She put both hands on her coworkers dusty shoulder and began to push on it repeatedly. "Joy! Get up!"

The creature didn't react in the slightest.

Riley felt her own warm tears stream down her face as she watched her poor emotion try so desperately to rouse the other. But Joy did nothing to respond. She didn't even open her eyes. She just laid there, limp and lifeless, as Disgust collapsed on top of her and sobbed.

Finally, the young girl forced herself to walk towards them. Disgust, hearing the approaching footsteps, stood up, wiped her eyes with an arm, and backed away, allowing a clear path to Joy. Slowly, sniffling, Riley leaned forward and scooped the fourth emotion into her hand, raising the figure in front of her face.

"Oh, Joy..." The young girl cried, squinting through tears, feeling a wave of guilt overtake her. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

The gentle sound of Riley's voice awakened something deep within the fallen creatures body. Joy's face began to twitch, a quiet, gentle moan escaping her lips. She weakly strained and struggled to open her eyes.

It took a full seven seconds of fighting for her deep blue eyes finally appear, and they immediately focused on the soft face of the young girl ahead. Joy sputtered the tiniest, hoarsest cough, before producing a weak smile. She focused all her energy on extending a single, shaky arm, reaching her hand out towards the familiar face.

"R...Ril..ey..." Joy barely wheezed, the energy in her arm expiring, causing it to collapse. "I... I al..ways... dreamed... I'd see you... i-in person..." She smiled.

"Joy!" Riley beamed. "Are you alright!?"

As quickly as her vitality had come, it faded. Joy's eyes flickered shut and her face and body fell limp once more. But that didn't matter to Riley right now. She was alive. She didn't know how, but her emotion was still alive. She gently pressed the dusty gold creature to her face and smiled. For the first time in days, Riley felt a stronger feeling of happiness.

Burning with a renewed sense of purpose, the young girl quickly plucked the lime green emotion from the floor. "Come on, Disgust!" She shouted, turning back towards the house. "Let's get her inside!"

Riley shot from the shed and across the yard at a tremendous speed, darting past her cousin, who looked on in confusion. Taking care to keep the injured creature safe, she slammed through the back door, skidded across the kitchen floor and flew up the stairs and into her bedroom.

Fear and Anger, who had heard her racing footsteps approaching from the floor below, ran just alongside Riley's feet as she sped into the room and towards the beds on the floor. They were dying to hear the news from the shed. But they would have to wait. The young girl was running on pure adrenaline, way too wrapped up in Joy's predicament to talk.

She hastily placed Disgust on the floor, then eased Joy onto the closest makeshift bed. She was immediately surrounded by the other three emotions. Fear and Anger began to shout an assortment of questions that flew through their racing minds, all of which were fielded by Disgust, as Joy was still unconscious.

Before any of the emotions could say anything to her, Riley was back out of the room, into the hall, and down the stairs to the kitchen. As she threw open the fridge door, she noticed her cousin approach from behind.

"What is going on?" The older girl shouted.

"She's alive." Riley panted, rummaging through the appliance. "But only barely. I'm gonna get her something to eat to see if that doesn't help."

Finally finding what she was looking for, Riley plucked the container of yogurt from the fridge and slammed it shut once again. Taking one more moment to swipe a skewer from the drawer, Riley raced through the dining room and back to the second floor, nearly tripping over her own two feet as she entered her bedroom and knelt back down to the four emotions.

"Joy..." The young girl called out, hoping her voice would once again cause the emotion to stir. "Please. You have to wake up."

Surprisingly, it worked, though not nearly as effectively as before. It was clear that her energy reserves were running severely low. Not able to open her eyes this time, Joy only had the strength to turn her heavy head in the girls direction.

"R...Riley..." She gasped, with the other emotions watching her in quiet awe. "You... you need your... emotions... Honey, y-you need to... to get us... home..."

"I'm trying Joy." Riley put a hand on the foam mattress. "But I don't know how."

"Th... The Recall Pulses..." Joy moaned. "They'll... open the way back..."


	29. Pain Prescription

Riley couldn't believe it. After what felt like an eternity of ignorance, an answer to her question was finally within her grasp. Finally she had found a creature who knew the way back. The numbness would soon be over. At last, she would know how to send the emotions home.

"The Recall Pulses?" Riley's voice quivered with excitement. "Those colorful rings you guys make everyday? Those will take you home?"

The weakened emotion before her didn't respond. She had once again drained the last ounce of her strength and had lost consciousness. Her breathing took on a more autonomic, labored appearance, sounding more hoarse and desperate. Soon, even breathing would become too difficult a chore. Her condition was quickly getting worse. If something didn't change soon, the emotion would not survive.

Shivering slightly, Fear gently picked up one of Joy's faded grey hands and held it between his own. "Sh-sh-she's really sick..." He stammered, his dusty purple eyes growing wide. "You... You have to do something!"

Riley gave a quick nod and picked up the peach yogurt container and the wooden skewer she had previously placed at her side. She hastily tore off the small layer of foil that sealed the cup's top, immediately catching a whiff of the tart treat, then dunked the stick into the creamy mass.

The other emotions watched quietly as Riley extended her arm, the yogurt covered tip of the skewer mere millimeters from Joy's pale lips. But where the other starving emotions had been energized by the smell of sustenance, Joy hadn't reacted. Not even a twitch of excitement escaped her form. She only laid there, continuing her haggard breathing pattern.

"Come on, Joy." Riley coaxed, slowly waving the skewer in an attempt to waft the smell. "You need to eat. Please..."

The once golden creature remained unresponsive. Becoming desperate, the young girl turned to the other emotions for assistance.

"She... She likes yogurt, right?" Riley whimpered and pulled the skewer back, her concern beginning to surface.

"She likes everything." Disgust meekly responded, holding her hands together at her chest. She looked Joy over from head to toe, her face filling with worry. "I've never seen her this bad before..."

Anger, who had been surprisingly silent through the whole ordeal, took a slow step forward, pressing his chest against the foam mattress. His brow was lifted, his mouth slightly ajar. The graveness of the situation hit him hard. Not only was there an emotion in mortal peril, it was Joy. The rest of them would never survive without her guidance. She was the support piece, the keystone that held thier structure together, and without her, they would surely colapse.

He reached a blocky hand out and rested it softly on her forearm. He hadn't noticed his wide palm had fallen directly on one of Joy's gashes; one of the empty spaces where light flecks that should have been there were now absent.

Joy's eyes immediately snapped open.

Her whole body tensed at once, forming a rigid arch over the makeshift bed. The other emotions leapt backwards, as she let loose a blood curdling scream of agony with every spec of air in her lungs. Never once had the others heard the joyous creature in such pain. When her air ran out, she weakly writhed and moaned, her face in a tight grimace, stressful tears running down one cheek.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" Anger threw his hands up in a submissive stance, not at all meaning to cause her such discomfort.

Riley, panicking, almost dropped the objects in her hand at the sudden sound. "What's wrong!?" She shouted, inching forward on her knees.

Joy rolled onto her side. Slowly, shaking violently, she hunched her back, curling into a tortured fetal position. "I... I... I-it... hurts..." She cried, her voice nearly silent. "It h-hurts... It... hurts so m-much..." She reached a limp arm up to the large gash on her face. Her hand barely scratched at the edge of the deep crevasse. Gold specks of light broke free from her face and disappeared into the air.

"No no! Don't do that!" Riley gasped, as Disgust quickly grabbed hold of Joy's arm and pulled it away from her face. It was obvious that touching these painful cuts only made them worse, but Riley had no idea of how to make them better. Since food had restored the others color, she hoped maybe it would do the trick for these gashes too. "Here, you really need to eat this!" She pushed the skewer close again now that Joy was conscious.

But the broken emotion couldn't have cared less about the substance offered to her. She was in far too much agony to even think about eating. Her whole being burned with pain, reawakened by Anger's accidental touch. She weakly rolled away from the wooden utensil, a low moan growling from her chest.

Riley would have to relieve Joy's suffering before she could feed her. But how? When Riley was in severe enough pain, her mother would offer her aspirin. Would that work on an emotion? They did eat, after all. But what would be a proper dose?

Fortunately, there was someone more experienced with medications present in the house. The young girl decided to call upon her for assistance.

Riley stuck the skewer deep into the yogurt cup and tucked it between her elbow and her chest. With the utmost care and using both hands, she gently lifted the bed Joy was lying on; pillows, sheets, and all. Once it was safely above the ground, she moved the entire square into the palm of her left hand, feeling through the foam Joy's pained writhing. With the other hand free, she placed it on the ground, offering it to the other three emotions.

It took the trio a moment to get situated in the young girls palm. Three creatures in one hand was a tight fit, their bodies uncomfortably pressed against each other. But none of them wanted to leave their injured leaders side, and were willing to put up with the awkward situation to tag along.

With the four figures, the yogurt, and the makeshift bed, Riley slowly made her way out of the bedroom and down the stairs.

Riley's cousin was sitting in the living room in silence, not even bothering to turn the tv on. She knew she was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to concentrate on anything. The only activity she was still capable of was typing away on her phone, which at this point had become almost instinctual. As she heard the creaking wooden stairs moan with the footsteps of the younger girl, she lifted her gaze from her phone, a worried expression crossing her face as she noted the small mattress in her hand.

"Riley? What's wrong?" She asked, gazing at the shadowy figure topping the bed, fearing the worst.

The young girl carefully crossed the carpeted floor and sat herself on the far side of the couch. She released the three lively emotions on the cushion between herself and her cousin, placed the yogurt cup on the ottoman, then gently set the bed with Joy just beside her hip on the couch.

Slowly pocketing her still vibrating phone, Riley's cousin watched as the three smokey shadows crept close to the insulation foam mattress. Her eyes shifted to the fourth creature sprawled out on the miniature bed, its form emitting a near constant hiss at a low volume. Even though it's shape was shrouded in darkness, she knew the poor thing was in dire need of assistance.

"It's... still alive?" The older girl tripped over her words, trying not to upset her young relative with her word choice.

Riley looked down at Joy and nodded. "She's in a lot of pain, though." She spoke solemnly. "Do you think we could give her some medicine to feel better?"

Her cousin sighed and leaned forward. "Well..." She thought aloud. "If they're mammals, they should respond to aspirin. How much do they weigh?"

Riley responded with a shrug. She glanced at the four creatures. She didn't want to touch Joy, fearing that she may only worsen her suffering. But Fear seemed to appear closest to her in approximate size. Without warning, she picked the lavender creature up by the back of his sweater vest, causing him to emit a tiny peep in surprise. She held his shivering figure just above her cousins lap. "Here." She grunted. "See for yourself."

Hesitating for a moment, the older girl finally extended a hand to the pitch black beast, and Riley dropped it into her palm. She couldn't help but inhale a gasp, worried that the creature may bite or sting her. But as it lay shaking in her hand, she noted that it was actually surprisingly soft and warm. Fear looked up at the girl, nervous to be held by someone other than his host.

Refocusing on the task, Riley's cousin gently raised and lowered her hand, feeling for the resistance from the creatures weight. Her eyebrows curled in deep thought. "An animal this tiny..." She mumbled. "Would need a dose of around, maybe, 50 milligrams tops." She somewhat roughly dropped the tiny black bug back on the cushion, and he quickly scampered off.

"How are we gonna find a pill that small?" Riley wondered, watching Fear trot back to Joy's side.

Her cousin folded her arms across her chest and fell back into the couch. "You're not." She plainly stated. "But there are some children's aspirins that come in a liquid syrup. If you get one of those, I've got some tiny syringes from work that we could use to measure out a proper dose."

Riley's face lit up at the plan. She softly rested a hand on the tiny mattress beside Joy, whose pained squirming was beginning to subside with her waning energy. "Do you want to try that?" She asked gently.

Joy only barely managed a nod at the question. She was desperate for anything to stop the pain.

The older girl jammed a hand in her pants pocket and revealed a wad of crumpled currency. "Alright." She sighed. "I'll just walk up to the corner store and buy a bottle, I guess."

Riley hopped onto her feet. "No, it's okay. I'll go." She quickly offered. "Besides... I need a minute to gather my thoughts." Riley's numbed mind was having a hard time processing the situation and its severity. She figured a quick walk in the fresh air away from the poor, suffering emotion would help keep her focused.

Confused at the offer but happy about not having to go herself, Riley's cousin handed a wrinkled ten dollar bill to the younger girl. "Remember." She warned. "Children's Aspirin. The liquid stuff."

"Right." Riley nodded, accepting the money. But as she went to pocket it, she noticed that she was still in her pajamas. Through all the chaos of the morning, she had neglected to actually get dressed. She gave a slight, embarrassed smile, muttered a hushed 'hold on', and darted up the stairs to her bedroom to change into something more acceptable for walking around outside.

When she returned to the living room, she quickly realized that something big had happened in her short absence. All four of her minuscule emotions were now hunched over in pain, groaning with deep wails of agony. A faint purple, green, and red glow radiated from the respective creatures on the couch.

Riley's cousin, sitting straight and tensed, turned to her young relative in shock. "I don't know what happened!" She shouted. "All of a sudden, they all started hissing and whining!"

It took the young girl only a fraction of a second to realize what was happening. As a reassurance, she spun around and glanced at the glowing numbers beneath the tv. Sure enough, it was 10:59, exactly as she expected.

"It's okay, they do this." She explained to the elder woman. "It hurts them for a little while, but they'll be fine. In fact, it's really good that they're doing this." She nodded. "Soon it'll help them go home."

The clock ticked over to 11:00, and Riley watched as, once again, the emotions chirped a final note of pain as the rings appeared and began to spread from their forms. Riley's cousin watched in quiet wonder as the colorful rings began to intersect and merge, forming brighter and brighter rings that effortlessly glided just above the carpet floor, spreading into the kitchen and beyond before fading out.

But Riley was confused. This ring had been no brighter than it was last time she had seen it. And it was no wonder.

Joy had failed to produce a Recall Pulse.


	30. Out for a Stroll

Riley stood above the four emotions in disbelief. Mere moments ago, Joy was telling her that their way back home had something to do with the Recall Pulses. But now that the time to produce the rings had come, Joy failed to do so. She hadn't emitted a golden ripple like Riley had been expecting. But why?

"Joy..." The young girl called out to the injured emotion, still writhing in pain atop the tiny bed. "What's going on? You didn't make the pulse..?"

The wounded creature continued to squirm. "Wh...wh..." She attempted to speak, taking all her concentration and energy. "Wh...at?"

Slowly, the other three emotions approached their fallen leader. "It's true." Disgust confirmed, laying a gentle hand on Joy's while avoiding the painful gashes. "We all just did. All except you."

Joy flipped over awkwardly and scrunched herself into a little grey ball, hugging at her abdomen in an attempt to distract herself from the ever worsening discomfort. "But... B-but I.. I... was..." She groaned, confused, annoyed, and exhausted.

Noticing her movement was quickly beginning to subside, the lavender figure tried to coax more info out of her. "You were what?" He asked quickly. "You were making them? When did you stop? What happened?"

But he was too late. Once again, due to the severity of her injuries and the lack of nourishment, she lost consciousness. Riley, while frustrated, was surprised she had remained awake as long as she had. Time was clearly running out. She needed to get the aspirin immediately.

Clean, dressed, and with the money safely stored in her pants pocket, Riley was set for the journey. She looked to the emotions on the couch, who looked back at her with curiosity and concern.

"Could you..." Riley slowly turned to the older girl lounging on the other end of the furniture. "Could you watch them while I go? Just to make sure nothing happens?"

Riley's cousin turned to the smokey black monsters on the seat next to her. Though she tried to hold it back, she couldn't stop the slight grimace from spreading across her face. These things... these creatures didn't even have visible faces. To her eyes, they looked like billowing black clouds that steamed with vapors so dark that no light reflected off of their form. A few of them produced some hasty hisses, the only sound they ever seemed to produce but that somehow the younger girl could understand. But despite their bizarre and somewhat unnerving appearance, they had yet to do anything to hurt her or her young relative. She sighed, turned back to Riley, and nodded. These things meant so much to her, she thought. They must be important.

Riley's face lit up. "Oh, thank you!" She chirped, smiling brightly. "I promise they'll behave! And I'll be right back!"

With a spring in her step, the young girl turned and began to make her way to the front door. But before she could make any progress, a tiny voice called out to her from behind.

"Wait!"

Confused, Riley turned and ambled back to the couch, gazing at the colorful creatures on the cushions. "Yeah?" She responded with a quizzical note.

Anger took a slow step forward, his blocky hand gripping his thick arm and his gaze at his own feet. "Well, I just..." He mumbled just barely loud enough to hear. "Was wondering if I couldn't, maybe, go with you..?"

The young girl giggled. She knew she probably shouldn't take the tiny creature outside. Hawks and crows lurked in every tree top, and the traffic of shoppers at the corner store brought with them the risk of the figure being seen. But this was Anger. He had only just opened up to her the night before. Now was her chance to finally bond with this fragment of her psyche, and she wasn't about to pass it up.

"Sure!" She beamed, placing an open hand beside him.

Anger, pleasantly surprised at the positive answer he had received, quickly made his way on board and settled himself into her palm. With an almost devilish grin of excitement, he gave a short nod to the young girl, ready to head out.

She lifted the crimson creature swiftly into the air, flashed a final smile to her cousin, then happily bounded out the front door and into the warmth of the bright summer sun.

Riley skipped down the walkway and onto the sidewalk. The corner store was just a few blocks away. Due to the crowded San Francisco streets, it was a much quicker walk than it was a drive. Besides, the weather outside was beautiful. The sky was painted with few wispy white clouds, the breeze blew slowly through the crisp fresh air. A mid morning walk was just what the young girl needed to take her mind off of the stressful week she had been experiencing.

Anger stretched in the suns toasty rays. He stood up straight, his grip firm on Riley's curled fingers, enjoying the wind on his flat face. With a contented sigh, he watched the ground far below scroll past his vision with each of Riley's footsteps.

"You seem to be enjoying yourself." The young girl chuckled, taking note of the wide grin spread across the red figures face.

Anger shot a smirk at Riley. "Yeah, well." He mumbled. "It's good to finally think about something else, like this nice day. I mean, I think we kind of deserve it after what we've been through."

Glancing at the sky to confirm the wonderful weather, Riley smiled. "You sure are concerned about what you think people owe us." She joked.

The crimson creature shrugged his brick like shoulders. "Hey, I'm just making sure things are just. I think we should always get our fair share. I've learned in my life that you can't just hope things go your way; you have to fight to make it so."

Riley sighed. With this stubborn emotion as part of her psyche, it was no wonder she wound up in trouble for acting out. But what he had said had produced a burning question in the young girl's still numbed mind.

"Just how old are you, anyway?" She asked quietly.

Anger looked back at her and raised half of his thick brow line. "The same age as you." He stated in a matter-of-fact sort of way, as if the answer should have been obvious.

The young girl scoffed. "You're kidding. You're twelve years old?"

Somewhat confused at her disbelief, Anger's face lowered into a soft scowl. "Why wouldn't I be?" He challenged.

Seeing that he was beginning to become visually upsetted, Riley turned her gaze in a different direction, focusing instead on a trio of birds that fluttered overhead. "I don't know...

She admitted, watching the birds disappear over a horizon of building tops. "You don't really look, or act, or sound like you're twelve..."

Anger looked down and studied his own form. The white dress shirt he had been wearing for days was quickly beginning to wear out and dirty, but other than that, he appeared in good shape. His belt and tie were both done correctly, and his shoes still maintained the shine he put in them a week ago. But it was true that he had never seen another twelve year old in a dress shirt and tie. Perhaps it was the clothes, he thought, that made him appear older.

"I've always looked like this." He mumbled. "Ever since I first came to be."

Approaching the end of the block, Riley quickly glanced down both sides of the street before skipping along across the intersection. Once safely at the other side of the sidewalk, she curled her brow in thought and looked at the figure in her palm.

"You mean, you were born like that?" She pondered aloud. "How did that even happen? Like, where did you come from?"

The little creature didn't really have an answer for that question. "I don't really know." He gently shook his head. "It was 12 years ago. Suddenly I just... was. I went from being nothing to standing in a dimly lit room with a brand new body and a new sense of self."

Riley's eyebrows raised in awe. "Did the others appear like that, too?"

Anger shrugged. "I assume so. They were pretty much already there when I came to exist. I only had to take one look at them to know that this was my new family. This was the group to which I belonged. And when I saw you..." He couldn't help but grin. "I knew I had to fight for you. It was up to me to make sure that things went our way. I wasn't ever about to let life get you down. Not without a struggle."

The young girl sighed and lowered her head slightly. "You know..." She let out a low grumble. "That kind of thinking is what's gotten me in trouble at school, and what's gotten me grounded at home." She recalled the many times she had let her rage take over, resulting in furious outbursts that never seemed to end well.

The blocky figure turned away. "I know..." He spoke at a barely audible level, reluctant to admit his own faults. "I just didn't want to see people walk all over you. When I was at the controls, I saw your true strength. Your spirit. It always made me so proud of you. And I guess, I hoped..." Anger slumped down, hiding behind the fence of Riley's curled fingers. "I hoped that somehow, you were proud of me, too..."

Riley turned back to face the creature in her hand whose gaze had now fallen to his own feet. Her face began to brighten, a smile grew on her lips. It was good to know that no matter who was treating her poorly, she always had someone at her back, a fighting spirit on her side. He really did care for her, just as much as Riley was learning she cared for him.

"Do you remember..." Riley lightly snickered. "That kid Anthony O'Dell?"

Slowly, Anger picked his head up, his solemn face slowly being replaced with a sly grin. "You mean that slow witted brute from second grade? The one who always teased the other kids and tried to steal their snacks..?" He grunted.

"Do you remember that day where he thought he owned the playground? He climbed to the top of the slide and blocked the thing so no one could ride it but him and his nasty friends."

The fiery creature chuckled heartily. "Of course I do!" He beamed. "We shoved him so hard, he went down the whole slide backwards! I think he even chipped a tooth!"

Riley laughed. "Well, it was a baby tooth anyway. Do you remember how the other kids cheered for us? It was like they had witnessed David defeat Goliath."

"Yeah." Anger smiled, reminiscing on their victory. But his face slowly fell as the rest of the story played out in his mind. "The lunch monitors..." He sighed. "They weren't too happy about it. We lost out on recess for a week 'cause of me..."

The young girl only shrugged. "Eh. We managed. Besides, Anthony never bothered anyone after that. Not while I was around." She winked. "I guess we do make a pretty good team."

The small emotion's eyes darted away in embarrassment as his wide smile returned.

Just then, Riley heard another voice. She was so enthralled in her conversation with the tiny creature in her palm that she had neglected to notice that she had exited the residential part of the street and reached the business district. Though it was Sunday and foot traffic was low, there were still other human beings about. And two were headed straight towards the young girl and her exotic pet companion.

Reacting instinctively, Riley jammed Anger into her pants pocket, whispering a rushed apology as she did so. Taking on a nonchalant appearance, she quietly made her way past the two young women coming the other way. As they went by, she could overhear their conversation.

"I know the store is only a two minute walk from our house." The woman on the left folded her arms. "But I don't know how I feel about going there anymore."

"Yeah." The other woman nodded. "That's the third person who saw that creepy smoke bug skittering around the shelves."

As the women exited her earshot, Riley excitedly pulled a dusty Anger from her pocket.

"Did you hear that, Anger?" She whispered at the figure hidden in her palms.

"Sadness!" He whispered back.


	31. A Simple Stock Boy

This was it. The final puzzle piece. The last lost fragment of Riley's shattered psyche.

There was no doubt in the young girls mind. What else would people describe as a black smokey bug? It had to be Sadness, the only emotion not accounted for. She was hiding just inside the small corner store that the young girl now stood before. Although she was a tad confused as to how such a small creature had made it so far from where the others had landed, she decided to save that question for after the fifth and final figure was safely in her grasp.

Anger turned to Riley, his brow lowered into an expression of determination. "What are we waiting for?" He barked, gesturing to the building just ahead. "Let's go save her!"

Riley nodded at the creature in her palm. It was now or never. "Alright, but you've got to stay in my pocket." She whispered. "We don't want anyone thinking you're some kind of bug."

The red figure glanced at the young girl's pants pocket with the slightest grimace. Her pocket was hot, cramped, and generally uncomfortable. But he knew this was the only way. So he sighed, looked back up at her, and flashed an obedient smile.

Gently, Riley slipped the little brick into her jeans pocket and bolted into the store, careful not to injure her petite passenger.

As she pushed on the entrance, an electronic bell noise echoed through the tiny building. Riley had been to this shop many times. While it wasn't exactly the largest store, it did have quite a few necessities down its narrow isles. The young girl would often walk here with her friends for a cold drink or a candy bar, and her parents would frequently pop in to pick up goods that they had simply forgotten at the grocery. Most importantly, though, it had a small shelf filled to the brim with pharmaceuticals; over the counter cold and pain medications. Though she was set on finding Sadness, she couldn't forget the wounded emotion she had waiting for her back home.

Swiftly and purposefully, Riley marched past the front counter, briefly glancing at the older man who sat at the register. The quiet man, somewhere in his mid fifties, was the stores owner. Normally, he would greet all his customers with a silent smile. Today, though, he looked significantly more disgruntled. He wore a scowl on his aging face, studying the back of a roach poison box. Riley swallowed. She hoped that emotions were smart enough not to fall for that.

Deciding that the tiny figure could be anywhere, the young girl started down the first cramped aisle. Thankfully, she was the only customer currently present, and so was able to make a little bit of noise. As she walked past the shelves of colorful packaging, she gently whispered. "Sadness..?" She called out. "It's me, Riley! Come out so we can go home!"

Though she had listened carefully, nothing had responded to her quiet calls. So the girl moved on to the next aisle. Anger slowly peeked his head out of the denim pouch and joined in, hoping the voice of one of her coworkers would attract the creature. "Sadness! Come on! The others are waiting!"

The duo continued their pattern; pacing up and down each aisle while calling out for the lost emotion. Even as they made their way though the fifth and sixth lanes, they still received no response. Riley could feel her chest tighten and her heart begin to beat with anticipation. If they had had no luck on the first 6 rows, then surely the emotion had to be hidden in the seventh and final aisle... Right?

As she rounded the corner to aisle seven, Riley called out once more, slightly louder this time. But when she entered the cramped pathway, she immediately fell silent. On the other end, neatly stacking some merchandise on the metal shelf, was a young man in his mid twenties. Messy, jet black hair topped his head, and small, light brown eyes illuminated his face. He looked at the young girl with one eyebrow raised, and Riley instantly knew that he must've heard her. Feeling a shiver of adrenaline, she quickly turned to her pants pocket. But thankfully, Anger had already hidden himself.

"Uhh." The young girl stuttered trying to say anything to stop the mans confused staring. "I was... Uhh... I..."

"Were you..." The man began, setting down the can of soup he had clenched in one hand. "Were you talking to the shelves..?"

Riley's face glowed a bright red as she attempted to produce an answer. But even if her mind had not been muted, she doubted she could ever be able to explain whispering at the stores goods. So she stood there, stammering a hundred 'um's and 'er's, unable to form a single cohesive word.

The man growled an irritated sigh, turned back to the large box on the floor beside him, and continued to unload the various soups onto the shelf. "I get it." He grunted. "You're here to see the Shadow Bug, aren't you?"

Riley's stammering stopped in an instant. How did he know? Was she not the first to come looking for it?

Taking note of her silence, the man shook his head, clearly annoyed. "Look, we're taking care of it, alright?" He slammed a can on the shelf with an audible clang. "The owner is setting up a dozen traps and poisons tonight, and we've got an appointment with the exterminator on Tuesday. The situation is under control. We really don't need all this bad publicity over one stupid bug."

Traps? Poisons? Come nightfall, this store would become Sadness's death trap.

"No!" Riley shouted, and immediately covered her mouth with cupped hands. The man whipped his head around to look at her, his annoyed frown quickly melting away to reveal a curious gaze. The young girl took a step back. She hadn't meant to shout. But she also couldn't let her emotion face the dangers of the night. Something had to be done.

The young girl exhaled slowly, lowering her head and shoulders. "Can you keep a secret?" She mumbled, sounding thoroughly defeated.

The man placed what was in his hands, stood up straight, and faced the girl across the aisle. He was a little confused as to why someone would want to share their secrets with a random stock boy, but saw no harm in humoring the young pre-teen. "Sure..." He shrugged, not knowing what to expect. "Is everything okay?"

Riley looked at the man closely, studying his face. The young girl was gifted with the innate ability to judge ones character. As she focused on his expression and his curious eyes, she got the strong feeling that this man was someone she could trust.

Taking a few steps forward but still maintaining a distance from the employee, Riley slowly began to place her hand in her side pocket. Anger, quickly realizing her intentions, attempted to back away from her approaching fingers. But in the cramped pouch, he had no where to run, and was swiftly scooped up despite his protests.

Cautiously, Riley removed her hand, stretched it towards the man, and slowly revealed the creature within her grasp. Anger, equal parts startled and frustrated, scooted backwards slightly, away from this new and strange person.

The man's eyes grew wide as he gazed at the black shadow resting on the girl's hand. It was identical to the one he had seen wandering the store, complete with the smokey trails that rose from its form. But, surprisingly, he didn't look scared. In fact, he slowly reached out an open hand with the intention of gently petting the strange creature.

Anger inched further back towards Riley and emitted a low growl, which to the man sounded like a quiet hissing. He froze and pulled his hand back slightly.

"Hey!" Riley snapped at the emotion in hand while still keeping quiet to avoid being heard by the owner. "Be nice! It's okay!"

The crimson creature rolled his eyes and folded his arms, pouting but no longer growling. Seeing a new opportunity, the man continued to extend his arm, even slower this time. As softly as he could, he placed a kind hand atop the smokey figure and gently ran it down its back, silently marveling at how it felt nothing like how it looked. Anger begrudgingly accepted the pet. While not fond of being touched by new people, he could tell through the brief, light contact that the man meant no harm.

He quickly settled his arm back by his side again. "The bugs..." He quietly mumbled. "They're yours?"

Riley pulled her arm back towards her chest, finally making Anger feel more at ease. "They're not bugs." She explained. "They're lost creatures. I'm just trying to help them get home." Using two fingers, she softly patted the top of Anger's square head, which he accepted far more readily. "They're not mean or dangerous either. They're nice, and they're really smart. They just want to go back where they belong."

The man nodded in an understanding manner. "I knew it was smart." He muttered. "Way smarter than any bug I'd ever seen."

The young girl's eyes lit up with excitement. "You've seen her?" She gasped, still trying to stay quiet. "Is she okay? Where is she?"

"Yeah, I've seen it." He smiled. "I've seen it, her, for days now. At first, I was gonna tell the owner about her. But something about her... She seemed so innocent. So confused. So fragile. I knew that if I told him, he would want the bug dead. So I kept her my little secret." He quietly chuckled. "In fact, every night after the owner left, I would leave some food out for her. Right before I'd head out, she'd emerge and go for the snack. I think she even started getting comfortable around me. She would let me get really close before she backed away."

He sighed and turned his gaze to the floor. "But when she started coming out during the day, too, some of the customers started to see her. Of course they flipped out and went screaming to the boss. He had me set up traps, but I felt to bad for her and would fake placing them every night. I just wanted the poor thing to be safe. But now, he's decided to do it himself." The man shook his head. "I tried to save her. Last night, when she came out for her food, I got really close to her and tried to grab her, but she managed to slip away. I think I really scared her, 'cause I haven't seen her all day. I don't know where on Earth she hides when she's not out and about. But I know she'll be back tonight."

Riley, excited to hear that the emotion was alive but worried about her safety, lowered her head. "Tonight? That's too late! I have to take care of the hurt one I have at home!" She turned away, frustrated, wondering how she was going to fix this situation.

The man put a hand to his chin. "I could try and grab her again..." He whispered. "But it's hard when she doesn't know I mean well."

The young girl quickly lifted her head, a plan forming in her muffled thoughts. "That's it!" She grinned. "You can tell her you talked to me! If she hears my name, she'll have to trust you! You just have to tell her that Riley is looking for her! And that I have all the others waiting for her and that you'll take her to me!"

Mildly confused, the man put a hand to the back of his neck. "I don't know... Will she understand me?"

"Oh yes." Riley nodded enthusiastically. "They understand English. Tonight, when she comes out for food, remember to tell her Riley was here."

Excited to help the lost creature he had been caring for, the man smiled brightly. "Alright! At ten tonight, I'll grab her. Then after I close up, I'll wait for you outside by the bike rack to give her to you. Sound good?"

The young girl bounced with glee. "Yes! Thank you so much!" With a relieved smile, she gently returned Anger to her side pocket. "I so appreciate it, and I really want to thank you more, but I really have to go. I need to get liquid aspirin for one of the others."

The man nodded and returned to his stocking duties. "Of course! It's down the third aisle by the band-aids." He grinned. "Good luck with them! I'll do my best tonight!"

Giggling quietly, Riley spun around and began to dash toward the indicated aisle. But before she got too far, she heard a voice behind her.

"Riley, right?" The man called.

The young girl turned around. "Yeah?" She responded, puzzled.

"Okay. My name's Cody, by the way."

Riley smiled. "Thank you, Cody." She beamed.

With the children's cherry aspirin purchased and in her other pocket, Riley swiftly made her way down the sidewalk back towards home. Though she was extremely thankful and relieved that a plan had been made for the fifth creatures capture, she knew it would mean nothing if she couldn't revive the fourth. Once out of sight of all passerby's, she retrieved the red figure from his jeans pouch.

Anger, free from the cloth prison, glanced down at the girls other pocket, bulging with the pain killers bottle. He curled his brow in thought. "Are you sure this is gonna work..?" He asked skeptically.

"I hope so..." Riley picked up the pace. "I just hope we're not too late."


	32. Overreacting

Riley's sturdy tennis shoes tromped rhythmically down the sidewalk. She fought herself to maintain a steady pace, instead of sprinting back to her house like she wanted to. For while she did have the medication that her injured emotion at home required, she knew the run was too far. The break she would no doubt have to take would make sprinting take more time rather than save it. Besides, she couldn't risk harming the tiny crimson emotion that had accompanied her on the journey. One hurt creature was already too much to handle.

The young girls blue eyes turned to the sky. She briefly pondered how long she had spent in the store. During the time she had spent explaining the shadows to Cody, a blanket of ashen grey clouds had rolled in, blotting out the once radiant blue sky. Though she knew these clouds were incapable of producing any trauma triggering thunder claps, she was mildly concerned about getting stuck walking home through the summer rain. Riley slightly picked up her pace.

Though the two had chatted nearly the whole way to the store, both had remained surprisingly quiet on the expedition back. They were lost in their thoughts, stuck internally debating which of the two emotions was in a more pressing situation; Joy or Sadness. In fact, Anger had only initiated a conversation once for the whole walk.

"Do you really think that stock boy is trust worthy?" The small square figure had asked.

"I didn't really have a choice." Riley shook her head. "We couldn't stay and wait until nightfall. Not with Joy in so much pain back home..."

Anger folded his thick arms over his chest. "Sadness isn't the type to fight back." He grumbled. "If he wanted to take advantage of her, she would roll over in defeat without a struggle."

The young girl sighed, not noticing her pace had quickened. "Okay, well-" She wheezed. "It was either trust Cody or hope the poisons didn't get her. I did what I thought was right."

The crimson creature lowered his shoulders and nodded. She was right; they hadn't had a lot of options. But he couldn't help but be concerned. This was one of his coworkers, one with whom he had spent his entire life. He couldn't allow any further harm to befall them.

As they rounded the final turn, the slender house finally entered their vision. They were so close. Riley smiled and sped up a final time.

Then the rain began to fall.

It was a sudden summer downpour, one that took the world by surprise. The ground went from bone dry to soaked in mere seconds as fat rain drops burst from the clouds above. A sheet of water splattered over Riley in an instant, coating her and her tiny companion. She quickly cupped her hand over Anger to prevent further water damage as she began to sprint towards home.

It figures. She thought, lowering her eyebrows in an un-amused smirk. Of course it rains right before I get inside.

But in her hand, the small figure hadn't taken the soaking as lightly. Growling, he lifted his decorated neck tie and wrung a good amount of water from the fabric.

"We were so close!" He muttered furiously.

Riley sighed, continuing to get rained on as she drew nearer to the teal building. "I know." She groaned in agreement.

Anger had only just begun. "We almost made it back!" He clenched his teeth, which were slowly growing uneven and ragged. "We were right there! And then it just had to go and rain!"

The young girl could feel her palm above the figure begin to radiate with heat. She glanced down at him with a concerned and somewhat startled expression. "It's really not that bad..." She mumbled, shrugging.

Ignoring her comment, the creature continued to rage. He wildly gestured to his own outfit. "My clothes are ruined! And these are the only ones I have! We were so close!" He bellowed.

The heat was quickly escalating. Steam from the boiling rain water began to rise from his flat head. Riley was shocked and confused. Why was he reacting so negatively? This was supposed to be her Anger, yet she knew she never would've gotten this upset even if her mind had been altogether. Fearing his well being, she tried to calm the ranting red emotion.

"They're fine, really." She spoke calmly and quietly. "We can ask my cousin to help wash them. It'll be alri-"

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Anger roared.

A plume of fire erupted from atop his brow, engulfing the hand Riley had held above him for protection. With a squeal of agony, the young girl jerked both hands towards her chest, flinging the small flaming figure into a patch of grass below. She turned her burning hand towards the sky, allowing the cooling rainwater to run down her irritated pink palm, and looked down at the fallen creature in utter shock.

"What on Earth!?" She screamed.

The rush of air from the fall coupled with the rain still pouring from the heavens had extinguished the flame as quickly as it had come. His head and his fury cooled, Anger pushed himself onto his feet after the rough landing and shot a terrified glance up at Riley.

"I'm! I'm so sorry! I-I didn't mean to..!" He stuttered, rushing his words out as fast as he could.

Riley nervously stepped backwards, gripping her still stinging hand. She had been unaware of the creatures fiery powers and was baffled as to why something as simple as a sudden rainstorm had infuriated him to the point of literally blowing his top.

Anger could feel his heart sink as his host began to fearfully back away from him. He was just as confused with his outburst as she was. He lifted his blocky hands in submission as he attempted to approach her. "Please, Riley..! I don't..! I don't know what happened!"

Before the young girl could react to the crimson creatures pleas, another sound caught her attention. Though muffled by the rain fall and the walls between them, Riley could just barely hear the pained cries of her own golden emotion. Looking up, she realized that she had stopped just beside her own house's walkway. Her numbed mind, unable to cling to the previous problem of the exploding figure, was quickly flooded with new thoughts pertaining to the injured emotion.

"Joy!" She exclaimed.

Forgetting and or ignoring all other distractions, Riley quickly plucked Anger from the grass by the back of his soaked dress shirt and dashed into her house as fast as humanly possible.

The young girl sped into the living room at top speed, tossing the square emotion onto the couch with the others. Her cousin, who had been passing the time halfheartedly playing some mindless game on her phone, shut the electronic off and tossed it onto the ottoman. She watched as her younger cousin seated herself at the other end of the couch right next to the tiny mattress and the whining creature atop it. Anger joined Disgust at Joy's side as Riley revealed the medication bottle from her pocket.

"How long has she been awake?" Riley asked worriedly as she fumbled with the bottle's child proof cap.

The older girl straightened her jacket. "Just a few seconds." She responded, leaning closer to the hissing shadow. "She keeps waking up and hissing for a while before passing out again. I think you got this for her just in time."

As Riley finally popped open the lid, her cousin fished a tiny syringe from her pocket and handed it over to her younger relative. Riley carefully inserted it into the sweet smelling pink goo and withdrew a good amount. Imitating what she had seen her cousin do several times, she inverted the syringe, flicked the air bubbles to the top, then squirted the excess out until the plug was lined up with the 0.5 mark.

"Alright, Joy." She whispered, placing the rest of the aspirin onto the ottoman. "This will make you feel better. I promise."

Riley gently pushed the tip close to Joy's pale grey face. Disgust, who was standing at the side of the mattress, curled her face into a grimace, repulsed.

"That smells awful!" She retched, backing away.

The young girl ignored the comment. But her offering was being ignored as well. Joy was too weak and in too much pain to open her eyes and see the medicine. In fact, she was in so much agony that she hadn't even heard what Riley had said. All she could do was weakly writhe and quitely sob in horrible discomfort.

Riley quickly grew impatient. Joy needed the medicine now. If she wouldn't take it willingly, she would be forced.

Using a caring but firm hand, Riley gripped either side of the sickly emotions round head, careful to avoid any of the gashes. She faced her head straight up, then swiftly plunged the tiny syringe tip into her slightly open mouth. Joy pathetically struggled against the restraints, trying in vain to defend herself but being unable to move her arms or legs.

"I'm really sorry, Joy." Riley mumbled, pushing down on the plunger and forcing the liquid down the creatures throat. "I promise this will help you!"

The last drop of aspirin escaped the syringe, and Riley gently pulled it out of Joy's mouth, a tiny dribble of pink dripping from the corner of her lips. Once again robbed of her vitality, Joy's struggling quickly subsided and she fell unconscious. The young girl sighed, hoping that when the creature next woke up, the pain would be gone.

Anger and Disgust quietly sat themselves beside Joy's mattress. Riley, feeling bad that she had to force feed the poor figure, leaned back and sighed. She watched as the red and green emotions took their place as Joy's protectors. That's when she realized that a certain lavender emotion was unaccounted for.

Riley sat back upright. "Where..." She began, looking all around the couch and floor. "Where's the fourth one?"

Producing the smallest of smirks, the older girl slowly opened the side of her jacket. Hidden below, pressed up against her hip, was Fear. He clung tightly to her shirt, shivering uncontrollably, his eyes forced shut and his hair-like appendage in a downward zigzag.

"This one kept getting upset when the other would wake up and cry." Riley's cousin smiled at the smokey bug at her side. "It wound up diving beneath my jacket and got upset whenever I tried to move it. So I just let 'em stay."

Riley stared at the fearful figure with mixed feelings. While she was so happy to see that her cousin was finally comfortable with her tiny emotion companions, she was concerned about Fear's condition. Sure, he was easily frightened, but this seemed almost a little too frightened. Riley wasn't even sure he had even noticed his host had returned.

The young girl reached a gentle hand out and poked the slender creature with a single finger. Confirming her suspicions, Fear snapped his gaze up, startled, then quickly dashed from the cousins side and clung instead to Riley's knee. His shivering was so violent, Riley could feel her own bones rattling just from being held by him.

Something was wrong. It was like her emotions were becoming more, well, emotional. Riley's first thought was that it was due to stress caused by their fallen leader. But that couldn't have been the only factor, could it? Was it possible that there was something more?

Riley didn't have long to think about it. A chipper but hoarse voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Riley..." Joy wheezed, managing the tiniest smile.

The young girl had forgotten how fast the small creatures processed foods. Joy's tiny body was already metabolizing the pain killer. Riley's face lit up and she leaned close to the golden emotion.

"Joy! Are you alright?" She stammered.

Surrounded by her coworkers, the weakened figure nodded.

Disgust gently placed a hand on Joy's shoulder. "We need to get you back to headquarters so you can heal!" She gasped.

Anger stepped forward. "How do we get back?" He asked quickly.

Joy slowly rolled herself over. "The recall pulses." She repeated her answer from before. "When all five meet, they'll open the portal home."

Fear approached from behind Riley's knee. "But, Joy!" He worriedly whined. "You aren't making any pulses!"

Disgust shot a glare towards her lavender coworker. "Well, we can figure that out later." She snapped, trying to keep Joy focused on the positives. "Right now, we're just happy to see you okay."

The wounded emotions weak smile widened. "I'm happy to see you guys too..." She beamed.

Her golden light flecks glowed a little brighter, and a few dozen of the missing particles in her gash-like wounds reappeared.


	33. Joy's Cat Tale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the wait on this chapter.   
> But I also have some news.  
> I have a tumblr under the name CoffeeFueledAuthor. I will be posting all sorts of news, fun facts, one shots, questions, announcements, illustrations, and even scans of my super secret idea journal there! Follow me to keep up to date!
> 
> THIS IS ALSO WHERE ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR THE SKYPE MEETING WILL BE. IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST AND INTERESTED IN HELPING TO DRAW A GRAPHIC NOVEL VERSION OF OUT OF PLACE, JOIN US FOR THE SKYPE MEETING. THE DATE AND TIME OF THE MEETING WILL BE POSTED ON THE TUMBLR.
> 
> Enjoy

For the first time since they had found her abandoned in the tool shed, the golden emotion was beginning to look a little more like her old self.

Using the utmost care to avoid contact with her gash-like wounds, her three fellow emotions manipulated the mattress and pillow to allow the injured Joy to sit up in her makeshift bed. The aspirin had worked just as they all had hoped. What before would've been an agonizing ordeal was met with surprisingly little discomfort. Re situating herself, the battered creature weakly beamed a smile at her host sitting beside her.

Riley felt like a tightness in her chest had been relieved. For now, Joy's situation didn't look so grave. She relaxed her tensed muscles and slowly placed a hand just beside the insulation foam mattress.

"How are you feeling?" The young girl asked, ecstatic to finally communicate with her lead emotion.

Joy's heavy eyelids succumbed to gravity and gently closed. She spread her smile a little wider, trying to mask her loss of energy. "I'm okay." She lied, not wanting to make anyone worry about her own condition more than their own. "I'm still... A little tired..."

The older girl, deciding to give her young cousin and her smokey creatures a little space, plucked her phone from the ottoman and lazily struggled to her feet. She made sure to give her relative a silent nod before she left, a quiet reminder that she would be there if ever she was needed, then crept to the kitchen to find something for lunch. This allowed the emotions to relax even more, feeling like they were no longer being scrutinized by the cousins watchful eyes.

Disgust leaned her elbows onto the foam square, emerald eyes studying the golden creature. "What happened to you?" She asked quietly, marveling at the strange injuries.

"I'm alright. Really." Joy rolled to face Disgust and weakly opened her eyes once more. "Chips must've just thought... I was a mouse or something."

"Chips did this to you?" Anger lightly growled.

Riley's eyebrows lowered in thought. "So you were the one that the cat was chasing..." She mumbled.

Joy nodded. "Yes. After we went through the bright light, I landed in a patch of flowers. As soon as I got my bearings, I realized I was in the neighbors garden. I decided the best thing to do was find you." She lifted a weak arm to gesture at the young girl beside herself. "But as soon as I emerged from the growth, Chips came right for me."

The injured figure rested her hand on her chest and quietly laughed. "I thought... that Chips wouldn't hurt me. He's such a sweet little cat. I tried to talk to him but... I guess he couldn't hear me. When he got close, I saw that predatory gleam in his eyes. And that's when I ran."

Shivering, Fear took a frightened step back, his eyes wide as he took in Joy's tale. "How did you escape?" He whimpered with his lavender hands intertwined.

"I found a few little nooks and crannies to duck into..." Joy sighed. "Like the crack in the bricks on the neighbors house. I'd run to those and hide for most of the day. But the neighbor man would take Chips inside at certain times every day. Those were my chances to explore.

"I made a few attempts to get into our house, but the door was too heavy to move. I even spent a day climbing up the rain gutter to try and drop in from above, but Chips saw me on the roof and chased me back down. And once, I swore I heard commotion coming from the birdhouse out back. But the second I tried to get up the tree, the cat was on my tail again." Joy grinned and shook her head. "It's hard to be stealthy when you glow like a beacon. No matter where I was, when Chips was let back outside, he would be right behind me."

Anger put his blocky fists to his hips. "Wait wait..." He grumbled. "How did you even eat? There couldn't have been any food out there, right?"

The golden creature shrugged. "Well, sorta..." She smiled. "One of the other neighbors would toss bird seed on his driveway pretty often. Thistles aren't... the greatest." Joy maintained her standard optimism. "But it was enough to keep me going."

"It sounds like you had the situation under control." Fear wondered aloud. "So how did you wind up getting so hurt?"

Joy's smile slowly fell. She closed her heavy eyes and solemnly turned her head away. "I... I got careless." She explained, sounding defeated. "It was last night. I had just escaped the cat when I heard some noises coming from the back door. I knew Chips had yet to be reclaimed by the neighbor, but when I heard the door open, I was determined to try to slip inside. I wasn't really thinking, but since I couldn't see the cat anywhere, I decided to leave the safety of my cover.

"I guess the cat must have found its way inside, because just then, you emerged, dropped Chips back outside, and slammed the door shut. I foolishly tried to shout at you, but you didn't hear me. Chips did, though. I was too close, too loud, and made too many bad desicions. When his eyes met mine I turned and sprinted away as fast as I could, but the cat was on top of me in an instant, holding me to the ground with razor claws."

Joy let out a wavering sigh as her voice began to tremble. "I tried... I tried so hard to fight back. I kicked, I screamed, I threw whatever sticks and pebbles I could grab. But I was no match. He batted me between his paws. His nails tore through my skin in showers of glinting yellow light fragments..." A single tear fell from the creatures pale face. "But I kept trying to escape. Not because I wanted to survive, but because I didn't want to abandon you. All my struggling just made Chips angrier.

"Finally, he picked me up with his mouth, fangs pressing into my sides and face. I could feel his jaw slowly clamping shut. Out of options, I tried taking a page from Sadness's book. I went limp. He immediately took notice of my sudden stillness. After a moment of confusion, Chips put me back down. He tested me with a few final bats from his paws, but I held my ground. Finally, he lost interest and began to wander away.

"I used the very last bit of my strength in a mad dash to the old shed. As soon as I was moving again, Chips was back to chasing me. At the last second, I dove into a small crack in the wooden wall and collapsed."

Joy turned her head to face Riley once more. "The next thing I remember... Was waking up to your voice..."

Disgust put a gentle hand to Joy's wrist just below one of her injuries. "I never realized we could get hurt like this." She whispered. "We have to fix these... gashes."

"But how?" Fear squeezed his arms tightly around his middle.

The crimson creature's eyes lit up. "The manuals probably have something about this." He suggested. "If we can just get her back to headquarters..."

Something within the golden emotions mind clicked. Her bright blue eyes widened significantly, and she began to turn her head this way and that, scanning the couch and the area nearby. "Where..?" She asked, her voice now sounding more worried. "Where's Sadness..?"

Riley, who had been distracted with medicating Joy, had completely forgotten to tell the others of her discovery at the corner store. Once more excited about finally rounding up the last missing creature, the young girls face erupted in a huge grin as she leaned in closer to the tiny emotions.

"She's not here... Yet!" She shot an excited gaze to Anger, who's huge eyes were alight with eagerness himself. "But we'll be picking her up tonight!"

"The employees at the store were talking about seeing a Shadow Bug." Anger explained. "Who else could it be but Sadness? The stock boy there agreed to nab her for us tonight when she comes out after hours."

Joy and Disgust smiled brightly, elated to hear that the final emotion was safe and about to be reunited. But Fear didn't share in their excitement. His face filled with concern, and he shook his worried head.

"You... trusted this guy?" He stammered quietly.

The young girl was less than a second away from opening her mouth in her own defense, but was surprised to hear that she wouldn't have to.

"Hey! Riley knows what she's doing." Anger gave a stern growl. "If she thought he was trustworthy, then he'll pull through for us."

Disgust folded her arms. "So... after hours? What do we do until then?"

The four emotions turned to the young girl on the couch beside them. Riley blinked, mildly surprised that they had turned to her for guidance, and tried to come up with a good answer. But as far as she could tell, there really wasn't any.

"I guess..." She mumbled with a shrug. "We just find ways to pass the time."

***************************************************

Riley took her eyes off her book for a brief moment, just long enough to catch a glimpse of the clock beneath the tv. It was barely four, no where near time to return to Cody. Mildly annoyed but still mostly muted, the young girl went back to her book, once again losing herself in the foreign land within the pages.

Beside her, still sitting atop the mattress on the couch, was Joy. She was laying on her side, exhaling in tiny, quiet snoring. For the first time since her run in with Chips, she was able to sleep peacefully, as the aspirin had relieved most of her pain. Helping her to sleep were the ambient sounds of her fellow emotions, a sound she had sorely missed for days. Even in her deep sleep, a smile found it's way to Joy's lips.

Disgust had found an interesting clothing magazine beside the bookcase. She laid on the floor gazing at the various shirts and dresses printed on the pages. Some would earn an enthusiastic nod or smile, others were met with a repulsed scoff. She enjoyed imagining all the outfits on Riley, trying to decide which should be added to their wardrobe.

Also on the floor were Fear and Anger, seated on opposite sides of a red and black checkerboard. Fear, whose pieces were black in color, had a modest collection of claimed red pieces beside him. While Anger, whose red checkers matched his own skin tone, had only a few of Fear's black pieces.

After a long period of thought, Anger stood and shuffled over to a red piece. Thinking over his move one last time, he kicked the checker into the next red square, then returned to his side of the board.

Fear stood with a smirk, ambled to a black piece, and picked up the plastic disk. Maintaining eye contact with Anger, he hopped over two of the opposing red checkers, tossing his to the red square underfoot and taking the two defeated pieces back to his side with him.

"King me." He chirped, flopping back to the floor.

Anger's face began to glow with fury. "That couldn't have been a legal move!" He growled.

"You saw it. I jumped two of your pieces, now I'm at your side." Fear gave a sly nod. "King me."

Grinding his teeth and with his pupils constricting, Anger snatched a black piece from his side and furiously hurled it atop the nearby king in play, causing Fear to jump slightly. Still fueled with rage, Anger leapt once again to his feet, stormed over to one of his red checkers and kicked it into the next position.

This time with a little less confidence and a little more concern, Fear walked all the way to Anger's side where his king lay. Without uttering a word, he picked up the two stacked pieces, then daintily stepped over three red pieces, which he took back with him to his side.

"That wasn't fair!" Anger yelled, stomping into the carpet, his face and head heating rapidly.

Fear cowered and began to shiver. "Y-yes it was..." He stammered. "It... it was a k-king... So-"

The square figure erupted with a violent fire plume. "I DON'T CARE! YOU'RE CHEATING!" He screamed, storming over to Fear, violently kicking checkers out of his way as he crossed the board.

Watching the burning creature approach, Fear let out a panicked screech, leaping to his feet and sprinting away in an instant. "No! Stay back!" He cried in terror as he darted across the carpet, Anger hot on his heels.

Fear was too concerned with the emotion chasing him to look where he was going. He crashed into Disgust, knocking him flat on his face, bright eyes pressed into the magazine below. But it only took him a moment to struggle back to his feet and take off again before Anger could catch up.

Disgust, still trying to take in what just happened, watched as the two male emotions sped away from her, screaming and shrieking. She glanced down at the magazine, which was tattered and torn from heavy footsteps. And when she rose to her feet, she saw that a clear shoe print had been stamped onto the side of her decorated green dress.

"My clothes!" She shouted, lifting her arms in revulsion. "You ruined my only outfit! I'll never get it clean!"

"GET BACK HERE." Anger roared.

"No, please! I didn't mean to!" Fear shrieked in response.

Riley gasped as she was pulled from her story and back to reality. Taking only half a second to comprehend the situation, she leapt from the couch and to the center of the room.

"Guys! Stop!" She shouted, snatching the screaming emotions and holding them in the air. "What is wrong with you!? You guys are acting crazy!"

Fear shivered. Anger let out a low growl. Disgust sneered at her dirtied dress.

And from behind her, Joy, who had awoken during the commotion, let out a depressed sigh. The particles that had re-spawned in her wounds only moments ago faded away, taking more with them, leaving her aching wounds even larger.


	34. After Hours

The oven timer went off in a chorus of electronic beeps. With mitt-ed hands, the older girl silenced the monotonous noise, yanked the oven door open, and grabbed the pale white dish from the center shelf. The savory smell of cooked meat quickly flooded the kitchen as she placed the ceramic container on the stove top. A quick test revealed the pork chops were cooked to perfection, and the girl smiled at her work.

Without a moments hesitation, she turned her attention to the side dish. She snatched the long wooden spoon from the counter top and gave the green beans one final stir, causing them to emit a hiss as they rolled across the heat of the frying pan, oozing the smell of butter and garlic. Satisfied that these were cooked as well, she turned off the red hot burner and moved the pan to the side. The meal was ready.

With graceful and fluid motions, the older girl spooned the food onto two plates in even amounts, dribbling the sauce over top like one would see in a cooking show. The picture perfect portions were then placed atop the dining room table, ready for herself and her young relative.

Before seating herself, the woman glanced at the top of the staircase. It had been a while now since the younger girl had disappeared into her room, taking with her the strange little creatures and their antics. While cooking, the cousin had heard the sounds of commotion coming from the bedroom, and had grown mildly concerned. Her offer to help was dismissed, as Riley claimed to have the situation under control. But the older girl knew better. Something was going on with the little black figures, and she was worried that her young relative would soon be unable to handle things.

"Riley?" She called up the stairs as she sat herself in the wooden chair. "Dinner's ready."

"We'll be right there!" Riley shouted back, a slight tone of exasperation in her voice.

In mere seconds, the older girl heard the bedroom door swing open, followed shortly by the sound of feet descending the creaky stairs. Riley, her face displaying a mixed feeling of hunger and exhaustion, made her way into the dining room with three of the little shadow bugs in her hands. She placed the creatures gently onto the table before flopping into the chair opposite the older girl with a loud sigh.

"Is everything okay?" Her cousin questioned.

"Yeah." Riley exhaled, studying the meal on the plate before her. "Everything's fine."

The older girl didn't believe her for a moment, but knew that prodding would get her no where. So she breathed a sigh of resignation and instead began to absentmindedly pick at her food.

Riley, meanwhile, began to separate tiny pieces of pork chop and green bean into three tiny portions, which she handed to the three emotions seated on the table around her.

"Where's the fourth one?" Her cousin mumbled with a mouthful of food.

"Asleep." Riley began to eat her own portion of the meal. "She's too weak to eat this stuff anyway. I'll probably give her some yogurt after dinner."

While Anger and Fear had already dug into their food, Disgust had yet to touch her own. Instead, she looked at the offering with a twisted grimace as if she were gazing into a portal to another dimension. She scooched herself away from the substance, emitting a tiny retching sound.

"What is this vile stuff?" She groaned.

Riley glanced at the tiny meal she had provided for the green emotion. It was just pork and green beans. Sure, it was never really Riley's favorite meal. She wasn't a huge fan of green beans. But her cousin was always sure to add a good amount of flavor to the vegetable, so she didn't mind.

"It's just dinner." Riley raised an eyebrow.

"It's disgusting!" The tiny figure sneered, turning her head away and folding her arms in protest.

Riley put a hand to her face and growled. She immediately took back all the times she ever refused food from her mother. "It's fine." She grumbled. "Just eat your food."

"R-R-Riley..?" Fear stammered nervously.

The young girl turned to look at the lavender creature, who had begun to gesture at the chunk of meat before him. "I-it's pink!" He whimpered. "Doesn't it look pink? What if- what if it's not cooked? It's gonna make us all sick!"

Before she could even begin to combat the fearful creatures argument, a third tiny voice began to say its piece.

"Riley!" Anger barked, holding his dinner in his hand while glaring at the portions in front of the others. "How come Fear and Disgust got so much more than I did? It should've been an equal amount for all of us! This isn't fair!"

The older girl across the table paused and watched as her young relative dropped her head into her hands in frustration. All around her, the three black figures were hissing, the volume and intensity of their protests quickly escalating.

"I am not eating something that smells that foul!" Disgust snipped.

"Uncooked meat contains millions of food borne illnesses!" The nervous creature yelped.

"You gave them more on purpose!" Anger yelled, a glow radiating from his face. "Didn't you!?"

"ENOUGH." Riley shouted, slamming her fists onto the table in a quick, furious motion. All three emotions immediately fell silent, startled by their hosts uncharacteristic outburst. "Just eat your dinner without complaining! You guys have been nothing but trouble today and I... I... I don't know how much longer I can take this..!"

Those last words hit the creatures hard. Waves of shame and guilt washed over their forms, and they slowly turned away. They hadn't meant to act out. It was as if they were beginning to lose control of themselves, like someone had robbed them of their own self-restraint, leaving them to act only on their pure emotional impulses.

Riley's cousin slowly and deliberately placed her fork beside her plate. "Riley." She began, laying her arms atop the table and attempting her question once more. "Are you sure you're alright?"

The young girl sat frozen in time for a moment, shimmering blue eyes pointed at her plate but seeing nothing. Her cousins question repeated a hundred times in her head like a broken record, only to be drowned out by a sound that Riley assumed was her own mind slowly falling to pieces. Her bottom lip began to quiver, her hands began to shake. A veil of water clouded her vision. Finally she succumbed to her stress; she laid her head on the wooden table as the tears began to fall.

Reacting instinctively to the young girl's cries, the colorful figures immediately leapt to their feet and approached. But as soon as their small hands fell upon her form, she jolted back upright.

Shaking her head slowly, she pushed herself from the table and began to stand from the chair. "I'm sorry." She sniffled. "I just can't do this right now." With her heavy head hanging, she silently excused herself from the kitchen and climbed the stairs to her room, leaving her three heartbroken emotions behind. Just before she entered her bedroom, she called out once more to the older girl below. "I just need to be alone right now. Sometime before ten, can you walk with me to the store..?"

The older girl, remembering the discussion they had had before dinner about the stock boy, slowly nodded. "Of course." She replied in a calm and understanding tone.

She heard the bedroom door on the second floor shut, and she let out a long sigh. The three creatures on the table turned to face her. Had she been capable of seeing through their smokey disguises, she would've seen the shock, sorrow, and pain plastered on their pale faces. She shook her head at them. "I don't know what you guys are or why you mean so much to her." She mumbled. "But she is my responsibility for these two weeks. If you can't keep yourselves under control, then you won't be here much longer."

****************************

Riley shut the heavy front door behind her and shuffled down the path to the sidewalk. Standing there waiting for her in the dwindling sunlight was her older cousin, her face illuminated by the glow of her cell phone. Seeing her young relative approach, she typed a final text in a flurry of thumb taps before pocketing the device and turning to face the other girl.

"You ready?" Her cousin asked, hiding her chilly hands in her jackets pockets.

The young girl only nodded.

"You... brought one of the bugs, right?"

Riley slowly revealed her right hand. Seated in its center was Fear, shivering ever so slightly. He was still upsetted by what had happened over dinner, but wouldn't dare misbehave with the watchful eyes of the older girl upon him. Anger and Disgust had remained at the house to keep a constant watch over their injured leader.

"Alright." The older girl turned and started down the sidewalk. "Let's go."

Riley trudged just behind, eyes glued to her feet. She remained quiet, not because she was still stressed from her outburst, as escaping to her room away from her over acting emotions for a while had solved that problem. Instead, this silence came from anxiety. This was the moment of truth, the final emotion. If Cody succeeded in catching the creature, it could mean the end of this emotional chaos. If he had failed, then Sadness didn't stand a chance. Not against the traps and poisons and certainly not against an exterminator. Riley bit her lip as they crossed the street, hoping with all her might that the stock boy hadn't let her down.

Fear was even more on edge. His soft hands held Riley's palm in a death grip. In his mind was a torrent of racing thoughts and predictions of doom, drowning out any chance of logical thought. He was teetering on the edge of a full blown panic attack, and this after-hours meeting with Cody would decide if it ended in relief or a total breakdown.

Riley's older cousin remained just as silent as the other two. Except her thoughts didn't revolve around the corner store employee. Her mind was focused instead on herself. For what felt like the hundredth time in the past two days, she was questioning her decision to stay silent about these creatures. All she wanted was what was best for her cousin. But the young girl seemed convinced that keeping these strange bugs secret was in their best interest. As the elder and the one in charge, the older girl wondered at what point would be the correct time to seize control of the situation. Should she really wait until the whole situation erupts into disaster, or would it be wiser to simply put a stop to it now?

Finally, as they rounded the final bend, the glowing image of the corner stores sign was visible cutting through the night air. Standing before the building was a single silhouette, nervously pacing back and forth in the empty parking spaces and chewing on his nails. Riley could tell by the outline of messy hair that it was indeed Cody, the boy she had met earlier. She swallowed hard. It was time.

"Cody!" The young girl called out, the first word she had uttered since leaving the house.

The stock boy whirled around to face the approaching voice. "Riley?" He called back. His eyes focused as the two women entered the cone of light that shone from the streetlight overhead. While he recognized one in an instant, the other older girl was new to him. He glanced at Riley's cousin with a quizzical expression.

Riley quickly took notice of Cody's gaze. "It's alright." She assured him. "She knows about them too."

Satisfied, Cody nodded, and took a final few steps forward to close the gap between them. His hands were empty, which made a shiver surge up Riley's spine. She hoped he was simply keeping the creature somewhere else.

"First, though..." Cody tapped his fingers together nervously. "Do you think I could... see yours again? Just really quick..?"

Confused by the request, Riley looked to her cousin for an opinion on the matter, but the older girl just shrugged. She sighed, gave a quick nod, then extended out her hand. As Fear moved closer to the strange new man, his shivering began to intensify. He let out a tiny yelp and began attempting to crawl down his hosts wrist and forearm.

"Sorry..." Riley mumbled, pushing the little lavender figure back to her palm with the other hand. "This one is just really nervous."

Cody stared at the little creature, his eyes widening in awe.

He began to nod and reached a hand into his ill-fitting jacket's pocket. "Yeah." He murmured. "That looks just like the Shadow Bug."

The young man's hand reemerged from the pocket, a tiny figure now in its grip. As it left the darkness of the cloth cavern, it became bathed in the light from above, allowing Riley to see its form clearly. A miniature blue figure, donning a comfy white sweater and large round glasses atop its round face.

Fear's mouth opened wide in an awkward smile. "Sadness!" He chirped.

But the cerulean emotion was too focused on the young girl to hear the call of her coworker. Her eyes carefully studied Riley's face, a face she had known and loved since her birth twelve years ago. She held her pudgy hands to her chest as tears began to roll down her soft blue cheeks.

"Riley." She whispered. "I finally found you."


	35. Desperation

A wide smile slowly spread across the young girls face, glowing with a mixture of excitement and relief. There in the stock boys hand was the final creature; the last emotion depicted in Fear's drawing. It brought a stubbly blue hand to it's soft, round face to brush a tear from it's cheek, only for another one to roll down and moisten her face once more. All the puzzle pieces had been found. Now it was just a matter of putting them back together.

Riley's gaze shifted back to Cody, who smiled with pride after a job well done. "You did it!" The girl's voice quivered as she spoke. "You really did it!"

The stock boy grinned and looked away, his face ever so slightly changing in color. "Well, ya know... It was nothing." He mumbled with a hand to his neck. "I just did exactly what you recommended. As soon as your name came up, the little thing walked right up to me and climbed into my hand. She really did understand me."

Suddenly noticing the movement in her hand, Riley looked down to see Fear was at the very edge of her fingertips. He stretched his slender body as far as he could in an attempt to reach Sadness, despite the fact that Cody's hand was much too far away for him to reach. The young girl quickly realized he was just as eager to reunite with Sadness as she was. So, to stop his straining, she moved her hand closer to the stock boy's.

Sadness gently plodded out of the boy's hand and into that of her host. Appearing to move almost in slow motion compared to the quick and frantic Fear, she reached out and pulled him into an understanding embrace. The stress and tension within his form immediately bubbled to the surface, and he broke down, crying profusely into the cerulean emotions shoulder.

"I th-thought..." His voice shook more than usual. "I-I thought the... the exterminate would... W-would-"

"It's okay." Sadness comforted in her raspy yet soothing voice as Fear's words quickly devolved into wordless sobs. Still holding the lavender figure close, Sadness peered up at her host's face with shimmering ocean blue eyes. "I know I'll be safe with you."

The young girl looked back to Cody, who had returned his hand to his side. He watched with a smile as the two smokey figures held each other close, happy to have helped make their reunion possible. After breathing a long, slow sigh, he shuffled a step back, jamming his hands back into the warmth of his pockets.

"Well, uh..." He stammered. "You make sure you get those little bugs home safely..."

Riley brought her hand with the creatures close to her chest. "Thanks again, Cody." She smiled, giving a slight bow. "I really appreciate it." Behind her, her cousin nodded a thank you of her own.

The stock boy's face grew brighter as he glanced to the creatures one last time. "Take good care of her, Riley." He mumbled, then slowly turned and shambled into the darkness towards the last car parked in the empty lot.

\---  
***

Riley's cousin's nails clicked gently against the screen with every tap of her finger. She repeatedly cycled from her notes, to the home screen, to her texts, and back to the home screen. Nothing that appeared on the screen was truly being read or understood. Instead, she fiddled with the phone only for appearances. She wanted to convince her younger relative that she was distracted with something else, so she would feel free to communicate with her strange smokey creatures. But in actuality, the older girl was far too curious to focus on anything but the ensuing conversation between the girl and the black bugs, even if she was only capable of hearing one side of the chat.

To prevent her arm from tiring, Riley had placed the her other hand beneath the first for support. She held the emotions just in front of her, paying particular attention to the shorter, stouter, and more solemn of the two, whom she had only previously seen in a drawing.

"We got you out of there just in time." Riley sighed with relief. "I saw the owner with some of the poisons he planned on putting out tonight. The amount of warnings it had printed all over it; it must've been the strongest stuff he could get."

Sadness nodded in somber agreement. "I heard them talk about the exterminator, too. I was ready to give up all hope..." She moaned. "But then the man said your name. He said he talked to you. He knew things that he never would've just guessed. And since I knew I had no chance with the traps, I decided my best shot was with him." She looked back up at Riley with a slightly quizzical expression. "He said you found the others... Did you?"

The young girl's face lit up in an instant. "Yes! The other three are back at the house waiting for us. You'll finally all be back together!"

A tiny smile formed on the blue figure's face, revealing her slightly pronounced incisors. Together. Reunited with her family; with the other fragments of her self. It was what she had been wishing for, but what she had feared would never come to pass.

From behind the group trudging down the sidewalk came a low rumbling. A bright light bathed the four individuals in a white glow, one that became brighter as the object sped towards them. The rumbling intensified, growing into a loud roar accompanied by the high pitched whine of a strained engine.

The sudden deafening blast spooked the lanky emotion. "RILEY." He shrieked, hurling himself face first into the girls palm and shivering intensely.

The other three merely turned and watched as the somewhat reckless motorcycle driver sped down the residential street and flew onto the next street.

Once the bike was out of sight, the young girl turned her gaze back to the creatures in her hand. Normally, the recognizable and mundane sound of the vehicle wouldn't make Riley even flinch. In Minnesota, her family had lived on a side street often used by impatient motorists to cut from one main road to another. Yet here was her own Fear, panicked, brought to his knees by the simple noise. It was even more proof to the young girl that something was starting to go very wrong.

Sadness studied her terrified coworker's form with a look of growing concern.

"Ugh..." Riley grumbled and, still walking, turned to the blue creature. "I don't know what's going on. The others; him and the three back home... It's like they're acting crazy."

The emotion's deep blue eyes trailed down to her hands, her brow lowering in defeat. "I was worried they'd be experiencing that..." She mumbled.

A feeling of anxiety broke through the muffled fog of Riley's mind. "What do you mean?" She probed. "What are they experiencing?"

Sadness sighed and slowly eased herself into a seated position next to the fallen Fear, who remained lying face down clinging to the girl's palm. She placed a soft blue hand on the center of his long back. "They can't help it. They're experiencing withdrawal. They're bodies are going into overdrive." She explained.

"Withdrawal?" Riley raised her voice slightly, feeling her shoulders tense. "Isn't that, like, an addiction thing..?" From the corner of her eye, she could see her cousin shoot her a confused and concerned look.

But the emotion shook her heavy head. "No, not this kind. See, we're emotions. As pieces of your psyche, we use the control panel in your mind to make you feel. Our bodies... They have a sort of need to use the console. It's what keeps us working, what prevents one of us from simply shutting down and never using the controls.

"If an emotion goes for too long without using the console, it enters withdrawal. Whatever emotion it is becomes amplified. Fear becomes more fearful, Anger more angry. This is so that the emotion feels an even greater need to interact with it's host. But... We aren't in headquarters. We can't use the console. So the amplified feelings will only continue to build."

"So how do we stop it?" Riley questioned.

"The only way to stop withdrawal is to transfer the feelings to you. And this can only be done at the console. You just need to get us home." Sadness helped Fear into a more seated position, who listened to his coworker in quiet awe. "Once we're back inside, they'll go back to normal almost immediately."

"H-how do you... know this?" Fear's quiet voice trembled.

Sadness slowly shrugged. "The manuals." She stated flatly.

"Wait wait..." Riley curled her brow in thought and frustration. "Why isn't this happening to you?"

"Oh, it is." The blue creature nodded. "I just know how to control it a little better. I've... I've experienced it in the past... But this is their first time. They're going to be far more sensitive to it.

"But that's okay. If you have all of us, we should be able to get back home just fine. We just have to be close to each other when the Recall Pulses form."

The young girl put her free hand to her forehead and exhaled with exasperation. "Well..." She grumbled. "It's not... It wont be that easy..."

Sadness raised her eyebrows, ready to retaliate with a question. But she was interrupted. The emotion had been so concentrated on her explanation that she hadn't noticed the group turn down the walkway and climb the stairs to the front door of the house. Riley's cousin, who had been walking ahead of her relative, deftly popped the key into the knob and pushed open the heavy door.

The second the door was ajar, a piercing scream escaped from deep within the walls. This was immediately followed by two separate voices, repeatedly shrieking the same word.

"RILEY!"

With adrenaline now coursing through her veins, Riley sprung into action. She shoved her cousin aside, accidentally slamming her shoulder first into the door frame, and forced her way into the building. Reaching break neck speeds, she flew up the stairs and into the bedroom where her other three emotions remained.

Anger and Disgust shot to Riley's ankles, grasping at the young girls socks and shouting over each other. Behind them, atop one of the tiny mattresses, was Joy. Her pale yellow form was twisted in agony, as she screamed continuously in pain. If the young girl wasn't mistaken, her horrible gash-like wounds had grown even bigger since their departure.

Realizing quickly what needed to be done, Riley dropped the emotions from her hand to the floor and disappeared back down the stairs.

The four able bodied creatures sprinted to their fallen leaders side, too stressed to even acknowledge the presence of the final emotion. They tried to comfort the tortured figure, but she was deaf to their words, focusing only on her own blinding pain. Tiny specs of golden light broke from the edges of her wounds and disappeared into the air.

Riley returned only a moment later, a syringe-full of aspirin in one hand. Before any could protest, she dropped to her knees and plunged the plastic tip into Joy's mouth, her screams muted by the forceful injection of liquid. She attempted to struggle against it, but her weak thrashing was easily overpowered. By the time the syringe was empty, Joy had completely exhausted her energy reserves, falling limp as she once again drifted into unconsciousness.

With the stressful noise finally silenced, Riley leaned back and breathed a sigh of relief.

Sadness ran her pudgy blue hands down her face and backed away from the mattress. "No no no no!" She moaned, twirling around to face her host. "This isn't good! This is absolutely terrible!"

Riley snapped back to attention. "What!? It-It's okay! The aspirin will help-"

"No, that's not it!" The cerulean creature cried, cutting off the girl. "She's so hurt! There's no way she can produce a Recall Pulse! We can't get home without it! The withdrawal!"

Riley still tried to maintain control. "Don't worry! I can handle it!"

"You don't understand!" Sadness shouted, her voice so uncharacteristically loud that the three other emotions jumped. "Emotions can only handle withdrawal for so long! If we don't get to the console soon, our bodies will fade! Our particles will wither!

"In less than a week, Riley, we will die!"


	36. Grave Situations

"In less than a week, Riley, we will die!"

"We will Die!"

"Die!"

The grim exclamation played on an endless loop in Riley's muggy mind, each repeat bringing with it another wave of dread upon her form. Her blood became as cold as ice, her heart sank to the bottom of her chest. With one dark declaration, Sadness had brought the high optimism of the group plummeting to the ground. The problem that they had assumed was just about solved now felt entirely hopeless. Certain death seemed to loom on the horizon.

Then, like a mental reset button had been switched, Riley's mind went totally blank. Her expression morphed from terrified to baffled. Something had scared her. Something had dragged her mind down into the depths of depression. But it was as if she had suddenly forgotten what. Like the words of the blue creatures statement had fallen apart into gibberish. Her mind had refused to accept the sentence as truth, and had simply deleted the entire phrase from memory.

With her thoughts now empty, Riley was forced to start the conversation over.

"W-wh-what..?" She stammered as her face grew pale."Wh-what did you say..?"

As if trained to do so in perfect unison, the three emotions; Fear, Anger, and Disgust, turned from Riley to Sadness. Their wide eyes and bewildered faces demonstrated that they, too, had been unable to fully comprehend what had just been said.

Sadness's ocean blue eyes darted from one face to the next, before finally she exhaled a mournful sigh. Her figure slumped forward, and she quickly fell into a seated position with her heavy head hanging.

"It's the withdrawal." She began at last, slowly removing her fogging glasses and wiping them clean with the bottom of her thick white sweater. "Emotions can't tolerate it for very long. It pushes our bodies to their limits. Just like a candle that burns with a brighter flame, it's sure to melt that much faster. Without a console to get the withdrawal under control, our bodies will basically burn themselves out. In less than a week, we'll... be no more..." Large tears began to roll down her light blue face and onto the hard wood floor.

An uncomfortable silenced lingered in the air for a few tense moments as the others took in this information for a second time. Their ears hadn't deceived them; they were now in real danger. Fear's hands were clasped so tightly that his knuckles turned a purple white. "W-w-we c-can't die..." His form shivered uncontrollably, the antennae like structure on his head twisting into a knotted zig zag. "What... What w-would happen to Riley..?"

"We aren't going to die!" Anger shouted, stomping a few steps forward, shoving Fear hard with a strong blocky arm as he stormed past. "We just have to get back home, and then everything will go back to the way it was. We... We can fix Joy in less than a week!" His ruby eyes flickered to the blue emotions face, unable to mask his own self doubt. "Right..?"

Sadness shrugged. "Making a recall pulse takes so much energy. Even the healthiest emotion experiences severe pain when it happens. She's so injured. Unless we can close those gashes, her body will never produce a recall pulse."

"But how do we close them?" Disgust's emerald eyelashes fluttered as she placed a hand on Joy's make shift mattress. "It seems like they're only getting worse with time."

As if to emphasize her point, Joy's arm suddenly jerked in her unconscious state, causing a few more golden light specs to fly off her wound. Riley stared with mournful eyes at the glistening particles floating effortlessly through the air.

"I... I don't really know..." Sadness sighed in defeat, placing her glasses back upon the bridge of her nose. "I never got a chance to finish that part of the manual. But as long as she continues to lose her energy beads like that, she's never going to recover."

Riley put her quivering hands to her now throbbing head. She was in no mood for more baffling information about these tiny creatures from her brain. She shut her eyes tight and massaged her temples. "Energy beads..." She grumbled to herself.

The cerulean emotion turned to her host, quickly taking note of her stressed body language. "Yeah." She tried to explain in her best calm voice. "They're basically raw emotional energy. All emotions are made up of these colored beads. The yellow ones are 'joy' in its purest form. We constantly deplete and replenish them almost automatically. But because of the withdrawal, Joy is using them faster than her body can replace them."

As she explained the emotional biology to her host, Sadness's eyes suddenly lit up. She lifted her head slightly, her gaze drifting up in deep thought. "Maybe..." She began with her brow beginning to curl in contemplation. "In headquarters, we replenish our energy much faster when we interact with the console; when we make you feel that same emotion. Maybe her body could absorb the joy from an alternate source..."

Fear and Disgust exchanged a brief, hopeful glance at the idea. But Anger breathed an exaggerated scoff and shook his head. "What are you saying?" He growled in utter disbelief. "If we all act happy, Joy will magically get better!?"

Sadness winced at the furious creatures sudden reaction. She had thought the idea seemed plausible... She brought her soft hands to her chest and once again lowered her head, sapphire blue hair spilling over her round face.

Retaliating for the defeated emotion, Disgust jabbed a lime green elbow into Anger's brick-like shoulder. "Hey!" She hissed. "Do you have any better ideas? I say it's at least worth a shot. We don't exactly have a lot of options."

"Or a lot of time!" Fear whined, roughly dragging his hands down the sides of his long face. "Besides, how are we ever supposed to stay happy when we can't even control our withdrawal?"

After a brief and silent pause, all four of the conscious emotions slowly turned their gaze to Riley. Surely, they thought, their host would know the answer. Lost with their own leader incapacitated, they looked to Riley for direction. She had managed to solve all their previous problematic situations with ease.

But the young girl refused to even lift her eyes. The child who was always so resourceful and full of brilliant solutions to even the most difficult problems was at a total loss. She shook her head, sniffling, unable to muster even an ounce of hope. They had come so far; she had managed to recover all five of the shattered fragments of her psyche, only to learn that it had all been in vain. Joy, she believed, was simply too far gone. Without the final recall pulse, the emotions were trapped in this world until their over worked bodies inevitably gave out. Riley's mind would remain incomplete her whole life, her thoughts numbed forever more. Riley pulled her knees close and began to softly whimper, ashamed that she was unable to offer her tiny companions any guidance.

A few glimmering gold particles began to dance past Sadness's vision. Wiping her eyes, she slowly turned around to face the source of the shining light specs.

Joy was awake now, lying in a more relaxed posture on the green foam, the aspirin having finally eased her pain. Her head was rolled to face the blue figure, whom she gazed at with a weak smile despite her condition. Large tears began to escape her eyes and roll down her cheek, removing a few more gold particles as they washed over one of the gashes. "Sadness..." She barely managed a whisper.

Sadness rose to her feet and solemnly shuffled towards the fading emotion. "Joy..." She sniffed, grasping at her sweaters thick turtle neck, beginning to cry once more. "I'm sorry..."

"Look at us." Joy continued, seeming to ignore the cerulean emotions last statement as her smile continued to widen. "We did it. We finally found each other... We're all together again."

Sadness froze for a moment in thought. Though she knew deep down that Joy's blind optimism was no doubt a result of her withdrawal, she was right. They had found each other. Sadness finally returned a smile. She turned to each of the other emotions, who exchanged glances between each other. Through all the panic and confusion, they had almost forgotten that, for the first time in what felt like ages, they were finally back together.

Silently, Sadness closed the gap between her and the golden creature, and she carefully embraced her weakened form. Joy's eyes gently shut as she beamed an expression of pure relief and happiness, and she sighed contentedly, her usual glowing aura began to strengthen.

Moved by the gesture, Disgust overpowered her own heightened emotion and joined the two, wrapping one petite green arm across both emotions shoulders. She was quickly followed by Fear, who had also approached to join in the embrace, trying in vain to hold the tears back in his huge, bright eyes, as his gangling limbs wrapped around his fellow figures. Even Anger, who opposed any and all physical contact, found himself joining as well, wedging his short form between Fear and Joy and reaching up with his stubby, thick arms.

For that brief moment; the withdrawal, the gashes, the uncertainty; none of that mattered to them. All that mattered was that they were together. They were a family again.

Joy nuzzled her face deeper into the arms of her fellow emotions. In a bright yellow flash, a good chunk of her missing golden particles reformed in her deep gashes, almost entirely sealing one shallow cut across her ankle.

Sadness smiled excitedly at the sight . She released the others and turned quickly to Riley, who had been silently watching the emotional exchange with a look of quiet awe and whose face had brightened significantly with a glow of hope.

"This will work." Sadness nodded, adopting Joy's optimism. "We can do this. We can still get back home."


	37. Remember to Smile

Riley stood in front of the hall closet cutting two squares from the already mangled insulation foam, making what would be the last of the tiny makeshift beds. Since Joy had basically taken over Anger's bed in the chaos, she had to make one to replace his as well as a bed for Sadness. Finishing with the scissors and admiring her foam cut handiwork, she plucked several cotton balls and tissues from the shelves before returning to her room.

As she entered her bedroom, she could see that the five figures on the floor had already prepped themselves for bed, removing their shoes and more cumbersome clothing. Fear and Disgust had seated themselves on their beds beside Joy's, and Anger and Sadness waited patiently for their own. All five had been carrying on a conversation while waiting for their hosts return that continued even after her arrival.

"So, tomorrow's gonna be all about staying happy..?" Fear asked, re positioning himself beneath his tissue covers.

"Pretty much." Sadness watched as Riley assembled her new hodgepodge bed beside her. "It's our only shot at Joy getting well."

Anger growled, folding his thick arms across his chest. "This better work." He grumbled. "Or else we'll have wasted a whole day on 'being happy'."

"That is the opposite of the attitude we need right now." Disgust snipped, settling into her cotton ball pillow. "We've already seen that it helps. It's going to take all five of us to make sure we get her fixed in time."

Listening closely to the conversation yet offering no opinions of her own, Riley deftly finished the last of the sleeping stations before standing up to prepare herself for sleep. Her mind still swirled with the uncertainty of the day ahead, but she had decided that dwelling on the situation would be no help to anyone, especially Joy. Feeling much more at ease in the soft fleece of her pajamas, she climbed into her own bed with a mind cleansing sigh.

From below, Joy studied Riley's every movement through shimmering blue eyes. The emotions had been so wrapped up in their conversation that they had neglected to include their human host. It was still hard for them to remember that Riley was now an active participant in that they could communicate with at will, rather than a vessel they inhabited. So Joy made an attempt to reach out and include the young girl in their thoughts.

"What... what do you think... Riley..?" She struggled to maintain a steady air flow in her speech.

The young girl, slightly surprised at the sudden inclusion, snapped her focus to the weakened emotion on the floor. "What do I think?" She parroted.

Joy weakly nodded in response.

Delving into her muted mind, Riley rolled to face the ceiling, folding her hands behind her head. "Well... I think there's only one thing we can do that seems to help." She thought aloud, visually tracing the plastic stars above. "Tomorrow, we're gonna do everything that we like to do. We'll focus a whole day on all of our favorite things, eat only our favorite foods, and watch our favorite movie at night." Her speaking volume increased with her excitement. "And we'll start it off with our favorite breakfast!"

With a bright smile, she turned to face the small creatures below, expecting them to return her grin with their own excited expressions. But she was met not with smiles, but with four tiny grimaces, as the emotions squeezed their bodies in response to overwhelming pain. All except Joy, whose face seemed to have fallen when she realized that she wasn't experiencing the same feeling.

Riley hadn't realized how late it had become, but knew before she even looked that her clock was at 10:59. She held her breath and waited, knowing what was to follow.

After an agonizing minute of the burning pain, four of the five creatures finally produced their glowing colored rings. Since they had been in such close proximity, the rings collided almost immediately. With the power of four pulses merged into one, the ring shined in an almost blinding white light, producing a hum not unlike a tuning fork as it shot through the room in an instant, leaving behind a glittering trail that slowly faded out.

"It just needs one more." Disgust panted as the pain subsided, laying back into her foam mattress. "And then we can go home."

Just then, a soft knocking appeared at the other side of the closed bedroom door. As the six within sat up, but before they could utter a response, the door slowly opened, revealing Riley's cousin wearing an expression of equal parts fatigue and concern.

She ran a hand through her unkempt blond hair. "Riley?" She yawned. "Are you alright? I saw a light flash from your room..."

"Yeah." The young girl nodded. She saw out of the corner of her eye as the five emotions acknowledged the intruder posed no threat and layed back down. "We're all fine."

The older girl smiled, and began to tiptoe closer to her young cousin, carefully dodging the beds with the black bugs beneath. With gentle hands, she helped to smooth Riley's somewhat tangled bed sheets and tucked her into a warm blanket cocoon.

"I have to go back to work tomorrow." She whispered. "Are you gonna be okay?"

Riley beamed a sleepy smile. "Uh-huh. We're gonna focus on staying happy, starting with a good breakfast."

The older girl chuckled as she began to head back to the door. "Alright. I'll help you set it up. Good Night, Riley." She grinned. As she passed over the little foam beds a second time, she paused, leaning down slightly to get a closer look at the strange creatures nestled inside. After a brief moment of silence, she breathed a quiet laugh. "Good night, you weird little things..."

After receiving a collective hiss as a response, the older girl turned and exited, quietly shutting the door behind, blanketing the group in the dark night. Riley, warm and snug thanks to her cousin's masterful tuck-in, nuzzled into her pillow, the bright smile still lingering on her lips.

"Goodnight, you guys." She chirped.

As the six slowly slipped into slumber, a flash of light replaced another sizable chunk of Joy's particles.

*******

"Turn the eggs over! They're gonna burn!"

"Alright, give me a sec..." Riley's cousin mumbled, laying a final strip of bacon into the sizzling pan. Switching her focus to the next pan beside her, she plucked the silver spatula from her younger relatives hand and gracefully flipped the three crackling eggs in an instant. Satisfied, Riley crossed the kitchen and returned to her station just in front of the toaster oven, watching closely as the bread began to brown. She wanted everything about this breakfast to be perfect, from how cooked everything was to the amount of butter on each toast slice.

Atop the kitchen table, the five emotions watched the women, pacing across the wood as they waited for the food. It was hard to stay patient with the enticing aroma flowing through the room. They could feel their mouths watering, their stomachs growling. But they maintained their composure for the sake of the golden emotion still seated in her makeshift bed, now placed on the table for breakfast. Riley had been sure to give Joy a dose of aspirin first thing in the morning so that the glowing creature would be well enough to join the others in the meal.

Finally deciding the toast had reached the perfect shade of brown, Riley popped open the toaster oven. As she prepped the toast with a predetermined amount of butter, she could hear her cousin kill the heat of the burners and slide the perfectly cooked meats onto a nearby plate.

"Alright, Riley." The older girl muttered, flinging open a cupboard overhead. "I'm running a little late, so I gotta get going." She retrieved a small Tupperware container from the shelf, popped the plastic lid, then threw an egg and a few of the bacon strips inside, along with a slice of toast that Riley had finished buttering. "I'll have to wait and eat this at work..."

"You mean you're not eating breakfast with us?" Riley asked, mildly disappointing, as she grabbed her fully assembled plate from the counter.

"I'm sorry." Her cousin sighed. She sealed the plastic container and dropped it into the vast depths of her purse, along with her phone and wallet. Flinging the hefty bag over a shoulder, she quickly rinsed her hands and made her way to the front door. "I'll grab pizza on my way home tonight, okay?"

Riley's eyes immediately lit up at the idea, and she could tell from the excited peeps emanating from the kitchen table that the emotions were looking forward to it as well. "That'd be great!"

The older girl smiled. "Be sure to call me if anything happens while I'm gone. I'll be back tonight!"

As the heavy front door shut with click and she heard the old car rumble to life and roll into the street, the young girl quickly skipped to the table with the breakfast in hand. The emotions waited with eager gazes, watching the girl portion each part of the meal into 5 tiny sections.

"So." Riley began, serving the miniature meals to the little creatures all around her. "What are some things you guys want to do today? What are some of your favorite activities?"

Disgust daintily wiped her hands on her dress before picking up some of the food offered to her. "We could do our nails? I haven't gotten a chance to in forever."

Anger grunted as he swallowed what was in his mouth. "Number one, we don't have nails. Number two, I am NOT painting my fingers."

"We still have the newest book in that Dark Heart series to read..." Sadness mumbled almost to herself. "We could read it aloud?"

Fear huffed with an exaggerated roll of his huge eyes. "Please. The plots of those stories have more holes than swiss cheese."

"Don't snip at her!" Disgust hissed, gesturing at her lavender coworker with a piece of toast. "The only thing you find fun is wearing knee pads!"

"That's not true!" Fear shouted, a hint of embarrassment in his voice. "Besides, what's wrong with being safe? All of hot-heads ideas of fun involve risking life and limb!"

Anger retaliated with a sharp glare and low growl. Fear yelped and hid his long face behind a piece of bacon. But before Anger could do anything further, he was interrupted by Riley lightly slapping the wooden surface of the table.

"Hey hey!" She commanded, being sure not to raise her voice. "We're trying to stay happy! We have to do things that we all like. I was thinking things like going for a walk, listening to music and coloring something, watching a movie when my cousin comes back. Things we can all enjoy!"

The emotions, still contentedly chewing the last bites of their meals, nodded. It would take concentration to get through their withdrawal symptoms, which crept up on them and clouded their judgement. But with their ever resourceful and intelligent host, they were confident they could make it through. Each of the colorful creatures shared a look of eager determination.

All but one.

Disgust, whose face had curled into a sickened sneer, sniffed at the air and retched. "What..." She gagged, covering her nose with petite green hands. "What is that stench?"

Confused, Riley sniffed the air as well. A foul odor flooded her senses, and though her sense of disgust was not within her head, she managed to wince in response. Now beginning to become slightly alarmed, she slowly rose from her chair and approached the counter top where the smell had originated.

With a few more sniffs here and there, Riley pinpointed the source; the toaster oven. She had accidentally left the appliance on, and something within was emitting a retched stench in response to the constant heat. The young girl opened the toasters door to get a better look.

As the oven flooded with fresh oxygen, the super heated food stuffs ignited, producing a tiny but bright red flame. Startled and with the smell of smoke quickly replacing the previous odor, Riley yelped and quickly blew out the fire with a sharp puff of air.

Sighing, Riley changed her mind. This was something her cousin could figure out. She slammed the door shut again, turned off the oven and, just to be safe, unplugged the cord from the wall. With a shake of her head, she turned back to the kitchen table.

To her horror, a familiar look had made it's way to Fear's face, triggered by the terrible smell of smoke. He sat up perfectly straight, his antennae like appendage raising and twisting on itself. His eyes were like white marbles with black needle points, his mouth slightly agape, his breathing heavy and uneven. The other emotions looked at him with puzzled expressions.

Riley wasn't about to let another screaming incident begin. "Fear!" She shouted, bolting to the table. "You're okay! It's okay! The fire's gone!"

"Th-th-the... F-f-f-fire..?" He stuttered, beginning to tremble uncontrollably.

"Shh. No no... You're alright..." Riley quickly scooped the small creature into her hands, his horrified stiffness making it easy to pick him up. "You're safe... We're all gonna be fine."

Moving almost in slow motion, Fear slowly turned his head to face Riley's pure blue eyes, alight with a kindness he had known all his life. He struggled, but slowly managed to bring his focus back to what was here and now, and away from the traumatic memory from the past. As his thoughts began to steady, his breathing began to regulate and his pupils grew to their normal size.

Exhaling in shuddering sighs, Fear curled into a tight ball within the warmth of Riley's hands, wrapping his long thin arms around his knees and shivering. He had successfully avoided a full blown panic, saved by the quick thinking Riley.

The young girl finally relaxed and sat back in her chair with the terrified creature in hand. She looked to the other four emotions, who had all been watching the dramatic scene play out without comment.

"Why is he so afraid of fire?" Riley shrugged.

Anger immediately turned away, ashamed.

"When we were ejected." Sadness explained. "There was a terrible fire. Worse than any we've ever had."

The young girl closed nodded. "I know. Anger told me it was an accident, though. How did it start, and how did it force you guys out anyway..?"

The miniature creatures all turned and looked away, no longer able to look their host in the eyes. Their heads were heavy with guilt; tears began to trail from Sadness's eyes.

"You mean..." Joy wheezed. "No one... ever told you..?"

Riley only shook her head.

The golden emotion looked to her coworkers, who all gazed back with pleading expressions. But she chose to ignore them, sighed, and propped herself further up on her cotton pillows.

"Riley..." She began. "I think it's time... you learned how this all began."


	38. The Fire that Burned

'876: Permanently banned from team and all future teams in league'

Fear continued to grumble furiously to himself as he filled yet another page. Without missing a beat, he placed the ink covered paper onto the ever growing stack beside him and pulled a clean, blank sheet from the ream by his feet. He slipped this one onto the clipboard and immediately resumed writing.

'877: Grounded by parents due to misconduct and banishment from team'

The frustrated lavender emotion was alone in the living quarters, seated atop his mattress. His bed, which was marked by a deep purple comforter decorated in little swirl patterns, was surrounded by stacks upon stacks of papers brimming with negativity. Nestled in his lap was a tattered old stuffed bear, once pure white in color, now a dingy grey from years of handling. It's heavy head was slumped forward, it's one intact eye casting a downward gaze, posed as if it, too, was appalled at the behavior that triggered this writing frenzy.

"You did that on purpose!" The screen above boomed, displaying the furious form of the kid ahead. He struggled to his feet, re balancing on his thin metal blades, his uniform of the opposing team covered in icy frost. The boorish brute hurled his hockey stick to the ice, puffing out his chest, trying his best to intimidate the young girl before him.

Watching the screen, the five emotions within the young girls mind winced. It was time to respond, the question was how?

It was Fear who leaned forward first, reaching trembling hands out over his station at the large console. "Let's just apologize!" He cringed. "Maybe he'll leave us alone."

"No way!" Anger retorted, slamming his blocky fist on several buttons before Fear could touch a single control. "We didn't do it on purpose! It's not our fault the kid can't stay on his feet! We're fighting this!"

In response to the button mashing, Riley threw her stick to the ice below as well, matching the fury that was presented to her. "I did not!" She shouted. "Maybe if you learned how to skate, you wouldn't fall over so much!"

The ogre on the screen twisted his face even further, bearing his uneven teeth, 2 or so missing no doubt from previous encounters on the rinks cold floor. He wasn't about to back down. Certainly not to a girl.

Fear gasped, raking his fingers down the sides of his face. "Are you nuts?" He shouted, startling Anger off the controls. "This guy is at least twice our size! We don't stand a chance!" Moving much faster this time, he fumbled with the colored knobs at his disposal, emitting a high pitched whimper as he did so.

Realizing the bully was indeed far larger than herself, Riley lowered her head and shoulders, shrinking down into a submissive stance beneath the shadow of the other player.

Anger watched as the screens view lowered, the console and soft edges of the monitor changing to a purple hue. His heavy brow lifted in shock. Riley was about to give in and apologize for something she didn't do. The crimson creature couldn't let this injustice continue. After all, it was his job to ensure him and his host equal and fair treatment.

With his face returning to its standard tight sneer, the blocky figure, avoiding the leader standing dead center, charged at the slim, lanky emotion huddled over the console. With a solid blow from his thick, muscular shoulder, he slammed Fear aside, knocking his slender form to the floor. The other three emotions; Joy, Sadness, and Disgust; took a startled step back as their coworker hit the ground with a heavy thud.

"We are NOT backing down!" Anger roared, his fed face glowing a bright orange. "Someone needs to teach this oaf a lesson!"

With a hearty howl, Anger slammed the controls. His flat head ignited, a plume of fire nearly scorching the ceiling. Fear could only watch helplessly from the floor as the console burned a blazing red.

Riley's eyebrows lowered. From her hunched position, she pounced onto the kid in front of her, knocking them both to the ice. The other player, taken aback by the young girls sudden tackle, struggled to break free. But Riley had his arms pinned to his sides, so all he could do was thrash his legs in the hope of shaking her off.

A ref appeared in seconds, as well as a crowd of cheering kids from either team. "Hey!" The ref shouted. "Knock it off!"

But as the crimson creature within her mind continued to manipulate the complex device, Riley in turn continued to fight against the kids attempt to free himself. Ignoring the ref, she leaned close to his face with a snarl.

"You're a liar!" She hissed. "A liar who can't even skate to save his life!"

The ref grabbed the girl from behind, prying her off of the boy and separating the two. A stinging pain surged through Riley's calf, which she had failed to notice had been lacerated by the boy's skate in the struggle.

Immediately, both children began to scream at each other. An endless stream of insults flowing from their mouths. The boy quickly leapt back to his feet, and both attempted to approach the other and resume the physical fight. But the ref held them at bay with two surprisingly strong arms.

"Alright! That's enough!" He shouted, a commanding tone in his voice that silenced either side of the confrontation. "I don't tolerate this kind of behavior! You two; go ahead and exit the rink! You're done with this game!"

Fear scowled just thinking about the incident again. If only Anger had heeded his warning, they wouldn't have had to leave early. And on the day their parents left for Arizona, no less. But it felt like Anger never took Fear seriously. And the others, they hadn't even defended him after he had been forcefully moved from the controls. Their parents eventually forgave Riley after she apologized for the outburst, but it had been clear that they were still disappointed. And that was the note they had left for their two week trip on.

Ever since that incident yesterday afternoon, Fear had holed himself in the living quarters. He sat upon his bed, compiling a thorough list of all the negative things that Anger's behavior at the rink could have caused, as well as the things it had caused. He had been doing this for several months now, retreating to his bed whenever the others ignored Fear's advice. But this had been the first time he had been physically prevented from doing his job, and that was the final straw.

All around him were the stacks of papers from previous outbursts, each one coated from top to bottom in what horrible things could have happened. This incident, he decided, would be the last.

After he could no longer think of any more consequences, Fear removed the final paper from his clipboard and carefully stacked it with the others. From underneath one of his thighs, he produced his miniature notebook and flipped to the first clean page. There, he wrote a brief description of the incident, as well as the number of outcomes he had listed and why this decision had been incorrect.

With the list finished and the occurrence documented, Fear was ready to confront the others on the matter. He stood up, gently re positioning his bear on his pillow, and picked up the newest stack of papers.

Down in the main room, the other four emotions meandered about. Riley's parents had left the night before, and her cousin was away at work until the evening, so the young girl laid on the couch trying to decide what to do to pass the time.

Anger was on one of headquarter's sofas, his focus buried in his newspaper. But the tales within were as boring as life beyond the monitor. Beside him was Sadness. She was leaned deep into the plushness of the sofa, struggling to keep her eyes open. Joy was the only one standing at the console, though her back was turned. She was wearing her usual smile, chatting with Disgust about possible activities to do. Disgust, who was seated on the other couch examining her face in her compact mirror, offered a few of her own ideas as she attempted to blend her makeup flawlessly with her light-bead skin.

Full of purpose and without hesitation, Fear descended the ramp down to the center of headquarters, the giant stack of papers in his straining arms. As he approached the console, the click of his black shoes against the smooth floor alerted the others to his presence, and they all turned to glance at him.

"Hey, Fear!" Joy smiled with an excited wave of her golden hand. "Glad to see you back!"

But the lavender emotion didn't respond or even meet her gaze. He simply walked to the edge of the console, placed the paper stack on the floor, then turned and headed back to the living quarters to grab another.

The others watched, perplexed, as he left without a word.

"What is it..?" Sadness mumbled, Fear's random intrusion keeping her more awake.

"I don't know." Joy's chipper tone lowered slightly. Curious, she tiptoed over and lifted the top most paper. "It's a list of some sort." She adjusted the paper and struggled to read Fear's messy handwriting. When he was upset about something, he tended to write at speeds where his hands struggled to keep up, leaving barely legible scribbles. Eventually, though, she managed to read the thoughts scratched on the paper.

"Oh... It's about the fight yesterday." Joy sighed, her smile fading.

Behind her on the couch, Anger growled, tightening his grip on the paper.

"I think you really upset him yesterday..." Sadness breathed in a mournful tone.

By this point, Fear had reappeared. Just as before, he wordlessly entered the room with more paper, placed the stack next to the first, then left just as quickly.

Anger threw his crumpled paper to the floor in a huff. "Are you kidding me?" He shouted, leaping to his stubby legs. He stormed up to one of the stacks and snatched a fistful of paper, growling at the words scrawled across them.

It wasn't long before Fear had formed a full semi circle around the console of large paper stacks. Each time he came in to place another, the emotions tried to say something, to ask him what he was doing. But he ignored them all, even Anger's furious shouting. Finally, when all the paper stacks were on the floor, he brought down his notebook and positioned himself in front of the console surrounded by his lists.

"These stacks..." Fear began in a voice like a professor giving a lecture. "Each represent a time where I attempted to protect Riley from danger, but was ultimately ignored. All four of you have been the cause at one point. But the majority of these stacks..." Fear shot a glare at Anger, who was standing beside the console with his arms crossed and his teeth bared. "Most of these were ultimately caused by Anger, and his refusal to let me use the console when it is necessary."

"What is this?" The crimson emotions face brightened with rage. "Are you honestly lecturing me?"

The slender figure gestured at his short colleague with his notebook. "This journal!" He shouted, attempting to match Anger's fury and opening his notebook to a random page. "Is filled with each and every time you have caused Riley harm by keeping me away! You NEVER listen!" He leapt around to face Disgust, who had been standing behind him, and thrust the book into her face. "Look! Everything has been documented! See for yourself!"

Disgust, fed up with the yelling, ripped the journal out of Fear's unsuspecting hands."Get that OUT of my face!" She hissed, hurling the book above her head. The object struck something metal protruding from the ceiling, and the notebook exploded in a shower of paper. She stormed away from the two male emotions, joining her female colleagues outside of the ring of paper.

"You guys need to calm down." Joy attempted to bring control back to the situation. "Maybe Anger did harm Riley, but he didn't mean it. And Fear, we've told you about starting fights with him..."

Joy's efforts were in vain. The glow in Anger's face burned a bright white. "I was NOT harming Riley!" He screamed "I was keeping YOU, Fear, from making Riley's life the HORRIBLE, MISERABLE life of a COWARD. I was keeping Riley from being YOU."

Fear whipped back around to face Anger as papers continued to flutter around them. "How? By risking her safety? You really don't care about Riley at all, do you?"

With the force of a land mine detonation, Anger's rage exploded. He screeched a furious scream as the flames burst from his head in a shock wave of light and heat.

Several of the papers still drifting through the air were suddenly engulfed in the pillar of flame and instantly caught fire. And as they landed all around, they ignited the old paper stacks that Fear had kept in his room, allowed to dry for days and making them the perfect fuel in the disaster. In a matter of a second, the room had filled with the fire, flames replacing any place where paper had sat moments before. A ring of fire surrounded Fear and Anger, pinning them with their backs to the console.

The eruption cooled the emotions fury, replacing it with terror. Fear began to scream in horror, watching as the flames suddenly grew all around them. Joy, Sadness, and Disgust cried out as well, backing away from the burning heat. Anger, thinking quickly, noticed one of the stacks had only just ignited. The fire was low, and the crimson creature was willing to take the risk.

Anger clumsily leapt over the lowest part of the flame, escaping the burning trap. As his foot grazed the side of one of the stacks in mid jump, a bunch of the fiery papers that hadn't fused to the others in the intense heat were flung into the air, quickly spreading the inferno to the couches and ottomans. The emotions screams continued, watching as the situation quickly became more dire. As more stuff in Headquarters began to burn, Anger struggled to his feet, and he and the others attempted to flee, running to the window farthest from the fire.

But Fear was trapped, too terrified to attempt Anger's stunt. The flames only got worse, burning brighter, crackling a mocking laughter all around him.

"Fear!" Sadness shouted over the roar of the blaze, her back pressed against the window like the others. "Get outta there!"

"I CAN'T!" Fear shoved himself beneath the console, trying desperately to escape the smoke and flame. "I CAN'T GET OUT! THE FIRE IS BURNING!"


	39. A Shocking Development

It was a disaster unlike any they had been through before.

It wasn't unheard of for things to catch fire during one of Anger's outbursts. Headquarters existed in a land with no weather, and so was a constant dry environment with a steady supply of oxygen rich air. The perfect environment for a fire to thrive. But despite the fact that within existed a creature capable of conjuring flames from nothing, fires had never really been a problem. A paper here or there, sometimes a couch or a chair; but these small issues were always easily solved.

This fire, on the other hand, had been the perfect storm. A fresh supply of dry paper allowed for the fire to grow quickly, and the destroyed notebook had given it an efficient method of spreading. And the console, their only connection to the outside world, was now unreachable thanks to a ring of fire surrounding the controls.

As if to add insult to injury, the smoke set off Headquarters automatic sprinkler system. All around the perimeter of the room, water rained down from from above, effectively soaking the four emotions pressed against the window. But the grand majority of the fire was in the center of the room. The sprinkler head there, located above and behind the console, had been bent when the spine of a notebook had collided with it only moments earlier. Instead of the cascade of water the sprinkler was supposed to produce, it pathetically sputtered water drops like a leaky faucet.

The noise level in the room had reached unbearable levels. The raging fire, almost in an attempt to intimidate, hissed and flung crackling embers at anyone or anything nearby. Fear, who was wedged in a small space below the console, shrieked in short uneven bursts, the smoke making it harder for him to breathe. The other emotions shouted words of encouragement in a desperate attempt to coax the panic stricken creature from the ring of fire.

"Fear!" Anger hollered over the obscene amount of noise. "You have to get outta there!"

Fear yelped as an ember flew onto his sweater vest, and he quickly brushed it off. "I can't!" He cried in an absolute panic. "The fire is too tall now! And it's so bright! I... I can't see anything!"

Sadness grasped nervously at the neck of her thick sweater, heavy with water from the sprinklers above. The flames were quickly consuming the papers and furniture. Moving faster than usual, she broke away from the group and made her way to the shelves of Mind Manuals, following the path of functional plumbing. The massive collections of 'how-to' guides were their only hope for solutions to the disastrous problem. Wasting no time, she plucked the manual labeled "Troubleshooting and Emergencies" and frantically began to flip through the pages.

With stressed hands raking through her bright blue hair, Joy let out a stressed moan. "What's going on?" She shouted. "Why isn't the sprinkler above the console working?"

"Something must've happened when the notebook hit it!" Anger winced. "If we don't do something quick, the fire will spread to the console!"

Disgust and Joy shared a horrified glance. The console; their only connection to their host. They had to protect it at all costs. Invigorated, they sped across the room, following its perimeter to get as close to the console as possible without being burned.

"Guys!" Sadness shouted, having followed them through the sprinkler gauntlet clutching the open manual. "There's a service call button under a maintenance panel of the console! Fear needs to press it to call the mind workers!"

"Fear! Where are you?" Disgust called over the wall of flame.

The lavender emotion emerged from hiding, barely visible through the glowing crimson. His hair-like appendage was in the shape of a chaotic zigzag as he stood at attention, waiting for further instruction.

"The Maintenance panel, Fear!" Joy yelled. "You have to open it!"

Fear whirled around to face the console. His huge eyes scanned the face of the device, looking over every square inch. But the fire was reflecting off the glossy white surface of the machine. He had no hope of finding a hidden panel.

"Wh-where is it!?" He panted, the heat of the combustion beginning to effect him.

Sadness studied the schematic within the manual. "Beside the Idea Slot on the far left of the console!" She read aloud.

Fear pressed his hands against the sides of his long face. "THE IDEA SLOT ISN'T ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE CONSOLE!" He screamed.

Confused, Disgust peered over Sadness's shoulder to glance at the book in her pudgy hands. "Sadness!" She shouted, realizing the problem. "This is a schematic of the old console!"

"Where can we find one of this console!?" Joy was quickly losing her composure.

"There is none!" Sadness yelped, flipping wildly through the pages. "They haven't given us the new manuals yet!"

The flames cracked another mocking hiss, spitting white hot embers at the emotions gathered nearby. Frustrated and quickly running out of time, Joy focused once more on the sprinkler over the console. It's pathetic sputtering was of absolutely no help, each water drop evaporating before it could even reach the fire. The book must've hit it just right to knock it completely out of commission. What then, she thought, would fix it.

Flustered, she reached her golden arms out and snatched the mind manual from Sadness's grip before she could even mumble in protest. Desperate, Joy thought that if a book had done the damage, perhaps a book could fix it as well. She hurled the heavy manual to the ceiling.

It was a mixture of the blinding light of the fire and the stressful speed at which she was moving that caused Joy's throw to miss. It collided not with the sprinkler, but with ceiling just beside it. The book's mass hit the surface with such force that the panel broke open, severing one of the nerve-like wires that ran through the unseen electronic network above. Sparking and snapping, the live wire fell and dangled in the center of the fire ring behind Fear, just as the manual slammed to the ground with a resounding thud. Fear screamed, pressing himself against the panel, the danger around him ever increasing.

"Joy! What was that?" Disgust hollered.

"I... I thought maybe..." Joy attempted to speak, but her focus was now on the writhing wire dancing among the flames.

"And now we don't even have the emergency manual!" The lime green creature moaned in frustration. "Sadness! Was there anything else-"

Disgust cut herself off. Neither she nor Joy had noticed Sadness run off during the book-throwing incident.

"Sadness?" Joy called out.

"HELP!" Fear shrieked, more terrified than he had ever been before. "PLEASE HELP!"

Just then, Sadness reappeared, carrying with her a large bucket from the utility room. "I've got water!" She shouted, readying herself to launch the liquid at the flames.

Disgust and Joy looked quickly to the live wire, then back to the dripping bucket within Sadness's grip. "SADNESS, WAIT!" They screamed in unison.

But they were too late. With a powerful motion, Sadness flung the water towards the center of the ring of fire. A good portion of the paper powered flame was doused in a hiss of smoke, but the majority still raged. And when the water splashed across both Fear and the dangling wire, a circuit was completed. A bright flash illuminated the room, accompanied by a loud crack and the pained screaming of the electrocuted emotion. The power of the current was absorbed by Fear's nerve-like body, bolts of static arcing around his limbs. The surge caused the wire to short, and the live wire finally died, falling limp.

Fear was now alight with electricity flowing all across him. He continued to howl in pain as its bolts sparked from his body, tiny electric fingers reaching for the console.

"Fear! Are you alright!?" Sadness gave a horrified cry.

"IT'S... IT'S TOO STRONG..." Fear whined in horror. "IT HURTS..." He stumbled a few shaky steps backward and planted a shoe on the manual. Losing his balance, he flew forward, slamming chest first into the console. The power which had stored in his body discharged, as the panel received the surge of electricity. Buttons and dials popped and burst off, panels broke open; finally the entire thing shorted out.

With the console destroyed, the monitor feed faded to black. All around Headquarters, flashing lights began to descend from the ceiling as an alarm blared a single off key tone. Fear weakly picked his head up just in time to see a typed message begin to flash on the monitor.

"ERROR. ALL COMMUNICATION LOST. EVACUATION IN PROGRESS."

"E...evacuation..?" He weakly gasped.

Suddenly, from the other end of the room, a huge, low rumble began to emanate from a single point in space. The air began to swirl, the room began to flash, and a giant white light burst just in front of the wall of memories. Floating there was a giant vortex, a structure like a black hole that instead glowed a bright white. As the spiral began to spin faster and faster, a suction began, pulling the sparks of the fire and the loose papers into it's gaping maw.

With a path now cleared from the water, Fear sprinted to join the other emotions beside him. Anger had joined them as well, startled by the appearance of the strange vortex. All five creatures gripped each other tight, trying desperately to stay together.

"What is that thing!?" Anger screamed, tightening his grip on Sadness and Fear's backs.

"I...I... I don't know!" Joy cried. "It appeared when Fear broke the console!"

"I didn't mean it!" Fear buried his face in the embrace of the others.

The suction was still growing stronger. The emotions began to become drawn to the portals core, their shoes scraping across the floor as they attempted to hold their ground. All five began to scream in horror.

Unable to maintain her grip, Sadness was pulled from the group, tumbling through the air before disappearing into the vortex in a flash of light.

"SADNESS!" Fear screamed.

One by one, the others began to separate. Disgust flew in next, followed quickly by Anger, both screaming as they flew off and seeming to vanish forever in the portals swirling light.

Fear shrieked with all his might, struggling to hold on to the only other remaining emotion. But a new look of determination had overtaken Joy's face. She studied their surroundings a final time. The raging inferno had begun to spread to the circuitry above, the alarms wailed and lights burned, the console sparked a final cough, and the message on the monitor had begun to flash.

"Fear!" She shouted, shaking the lavender emotions shoulders as they continued to skid closer to the far end of the room. "Fear listen to me. We don't have any options. We have to go through the portal! It's the only way!"

Fear gazed up at her with bloodshot, tear filled eyes. But her purpose-filled expression seemed to be somewhat comforting despite the horror all around. "It's... It's the only way..?" He sobbed.

Joy nodded. "It's the only way."

She pulled Fear close to her in a tight embrace as farewell, then let go completely. The suction overtook her, and she was pulled through the vortex in an blinding flash.

Fear, unable to overcome his terror, shrieked and scrambled, trying to fight against the almost magnetic pull. But alone, he was no match. And it wasn't long before he was air born. As he sailed through the air, he caught one final glimpse of Headquarters; his former home completely in flames among flashing lights. And just before he entered the portal, he could see a half dozen mind workers rush in armed with fire extinguishers.

The portal engulfed him. Bright white light flooded his vision, the sound of static roaring all around.


	40. To Forgive, Divine

"When we woke up..." Joy sighed, her weakened lungs fatigued from speaking for so long. "We were here. Separated... Trapped in your world. And the only thing on our minds was you... All we could think about... was your well being, and how we could fix this horrible mess..."

Riley, whose eyes had wandered to the floor during Joy's tale, stiffly leaned back into the dining room chair. The mystery had been solved. She had finally discovered the cause of her numbness, the root of the problem. Sure, she had learned bits and pieces from the others over the past few days. She knew that ultimately it had ended in a fire set by Anger leading to Fear entering a panic. But now she had learned every last action that had lead to the emergency ejection, most of those details the emotions had been trying to keep secret.

The colorful creatures atop the table watched their host with a quiet intensity, studying every subtle movement she made. They were waiting, watching for any sign of reaction from the young girl to the ejection story, particularly the emotions involvement in the disaster. They all feared that their actions would be deemed unforgivable, and that this would be the thing to sever the relationship between host and fragments.

But the only thing Riley reacted to was a peculiar feeling building within her palm. With a puzzled raise of her eyebrows, she looked down at her hand, still held parallel to the table below it. She had almost forgotten that Fear had been in her grasp through the duration of the tale. He was still huddled in a tight ball with his spindly arms hugging his knees close, though now his face was hidden beneath his legs. His uncontrollable shaking felt like a cell phone set to vibrate, causing a palpable shiver to echo up Riley's entire arm. Listening closely, the young girl could just barely hear the lavender creature mumbling incoherently to himself, his whimpering voice shaking with his body.

"Are you alright..?" Riley kept her voice quiet so as not to aggravate the emotions withdrawal, but it caused it to come out as flat and unfeeling which, given her numbed mind, wasn't too far off from how she actually felt.

The terrified figure squeezed his legs tighter, hiding more of his face behind his knees. "I-it's my fault..." His quiet, quivering voice was muffled by his pants. "I... I broke th-the panel... I ruined headquarters... I caused the ejection..."

Riley lowered her head slightly. "Fear-"

"And n-now that y-you know..." The whimpering emotion cut her off. "Y-you... You probably... You..." With intensifying shivers, his voice trailed off until it was back to hushed, nonsensical muttering.

From across the table, Anger watched as the young girl slumped further into the wooden chair. She slowly closed her heavy eyes, fatigued more mentally than physically, and breathed a long sigh. A tight knot of guilt twisted in Angers stomach. He watched Riley's actions closely, believing that a blind fury was quietly building within her, almost as if he was still in headquarters slamming on the controls. The sickly feeling grew stronger, as the crimson creature feared the coming outburst would be unfairly directed at the wrong individual.

"Wait, Riley!" Anger suddenly shouted, scrambling onto his stout legs. Riley's bright blue eyes snapped open, focusing on the small square figure as he drew closer. "You... You can't blame Fear. It wasn't his fault." His gaze drifted to the tables glossy wooden surface, his expression filled with shame. "It's like I said before... I started the fire. Fear wouldn't have been able to break the console if I hadn't started the disaster. The ejection is my fault, not Fear's."

But before Riley could even consider a response, she was cut off by yet another voice.

"An... Anger..." A frail voice weakly moaned. Joy attempted to push herself further up the foam mattress to a more seated position. "You... You can't say that...

"Riley... The ejection... It wasn't caused by any one of us. It... It was all of us. Every one of us... Played some part in the problem..." Joy struggled to keep herself audible. "If I hadn't... Thrown the manual, the wire never would've... Been exposed."

Disgust nodded in somber agreement, her emerald eyelashes batting rapidly. "I was the one who ruined the sprinkler head." She breathed in a sigh. "If I hadn't tossed Fear's journal, the sprinkler would've still been functional and it would've put out the fire in an instant."

Ashamed and filled with remorse, Sadness wrapped her arms around her middle in a tight squeeze. "I was only trying to douse the fire..." Her ocean blue eyes brimmed with tears. "But if it wasn't for me, Fear never would have been able to electrocute the panel."

"You see, Riley..." Joy continued, shaking her heavy head. "You... You can't blame Anger or Fear... It was all of us... We all caused the ejection... We all deserve the blame..."

In unison, all five of the colored creatures lowered their heads, almost as if to brace themselves from the verbal punishment they were no doubt about to receive from their furious host. But as they held steady and continued to wait, they began to realize that nothing was happening. Slowly, one by one, they raised their gaze to their host in mild confusion, wondering when the outburst would start.

But Riley's face was completely devoid of fury. In fact, she seemed to look so calm. Before the tiny creatures could question her, she flashed a small smile and leaned down onto the table with her chest. To their surprise, she even let out a quiet chuckle.

"You're not mad..?" Anger rubbed his blocky hands together.

Riley shook her head. "No. I'm not mad. Today's about staying happy, remember?" Her smile widened significantly. "Besides, what would being angry help? I know you guys didn't mean it. It sounds like it was all just an accident. What's done is done. Even though you may have caused this whole numbness thing, you also have all been doing your best to fix it. And we're so close now. Like mom always says; why dwell on the problems of the past when you can focus on solutions for the future."

With diminishing shivers, Fear finally brought his face from his knees, staring up at the young girl with chalky, dilated eyes. Slowly, his bushy eyebrows lowered, and a relieved grin began to form on his lips. In fact, all of the emotions couldn't help but smile in response to their hosts surprisingly positive reaction. Even Anger bore the expression, smiling wide enough to expose his somewhat crooked teeth.

Sadness turned to Joy with a nervous smirk. "She's really sounding like you again." She grinned, the moisture from her eyes quickly dissipating.

Joy expelled a contented sigh, gently nodding in agreement. "That's our girl..." She beamed.

Riley looked to the creatures on the table, satisfied she had maintained a positive air. She absentmindedly began running a finger across Fear's side, who happily accepted the comforting gesture.

In yet another flash of light, more of Joy's glistening particles reappeared in her wounds.

***

After finally completing the clean up in the kitchen, Riley went to join her emotions in the living room. She had set them up in one of the happiest environments she could think of; a 1000 piece puzzle on the floor and one of her favorite programs playing on the tv.

As she entered the room, she saw that her set up had been successful. All 1000 pieces of the puzzle had been flipped over to reveal their colorfully painted sides. Fear and Sadness were working together on the border, which they found significantly more difficult in their minuscule state. Disgust had her own pile of similarly colored blue pieces, and was slowly figuring out how they all fit together while occasionally glancing up at the tv screen above. Anger had brought a pile of pieces next to Joy so she could watch and offer assistance from her bed as he assembled another part of the broken image. And all five chattered happily about the topic of the tv show, occasionally quoting along with their favorite lines and chuckling to themselves.

Riley gently crossed the carpeted floor to the emotions, seating herself between Disgust and the puzzles incomplete border. The green figure acknowledged her host with a smile, moving to the other side of her blue puzzle piece pile so Riley could better see what she was doing.

"Have you figured out what it's supposed to be yet?" Riley questioned, plucking a blue piece from the carpet and fitting it into the other assembled pieces. She had found the puzzle in a sealed zip lock back rather than its original box, and couldn't remember what the finished image looked like.

"Uh, my only hint is blue." Disgust laughed as she searched for more fits. "Lots and lots of blue. So... no."

"I think it's a bakery." Fear announced, walking a border piece over to an unfinished edge.

Sadness nodded. "Yeah. I can see a case with donuts in it."

From behind her, Riley heard Anger pawing through the large pile for similarly colored pieces. He smirked. "A donut doesn't sound half bad right now." He joked, bringing more of the odd shapes over to Joy.

Almost as if on queue, a character in the tv show began to talk about various pastries. Riley giggled at the appropriate timing, continuing to sort the awkwardly shaped blue chunks. "Well, if you're serious, we could get donuts." The young girl suggested. "The bakery's closed, but we could get some of those cheap store-bought things from the corner store."

The blue creature, having just placed a corner piece, picked up her head at the words 'corner store', turning to her host with an excited expression.

"Wait, wait. Something's not right here..." Fear suddenly chirped, bounding over to his solemn coworker. His bright eyes squeezed into a squint as he viewed the incomplete border. "There has to be a piece in the wrong spot. This side is much shorter than the other."

Sadness's face quickly fell. "It is..?" She mumbled, removing the corner piece again.

Fear waved his lavender hands rapidly. "No no. Not that one. That one was fine. It has to be one earlier in the line..."

The purple and blue emotions began to pace down the puzzles edge, trying to figure out where the error was. Their discussion began to increase in volume.

From atop her mattress, Joy studied the empty space Anger had been trying to fill. When she lifted her gaze to the large pile of pieces, her eyes immediately fell on a piece that appeared it would fill the space perfectly. She smiled, and attempted to point it out to her crimson coworker.

"Anger-" She began.

But Anger's attention was elsewhere. "What do you mean a piece is wrong?" He cut Joy off, glaring at Fear and Sadness attempt to fix the border. "Let me see."

With that, Anger marched over to join the two emotions in their search for the problem. Even Disgust and Riley were helping with the situation, leaving Joy alone on her mattress. Frustrated, the golden creature lowered her eyebrows, staring longingly at the piece. She knew it had to be the one Anger had been searching for. She didn't want to forget which one it was. She just wanted to get the piece in its place...

After a good time was spent bickering over the border, the error was finally located. A piece which appeared to fit in shape was slightly off in color to its neighboring pieces. Fear and Sadness quickly plucked it from the edge, slicing the side in two. Happy that the problem was fixed, the group began to return to their various stations. Fear and Sadness continued their border building, Riley and Disgust resumed arranging the blue's.

But as Anger turned to return to Joy's mattress, he gasped. Worried, the other three emotions and their host turned to see what was the matter, and they immediately gasped, themselves.

Fed up with waiting, the golden creature had grabbed the missing piece from the pile and was fitting it into position. Once it was finally placed and snug, she smiled and turned around to face the others. But as she saw their surprised stares, her happy expression transformed into a worried one.

"What?" She asked. "What's wrong?"

"Joy..!" Anger muttered. "You're... You're standing up!"


	41. Infamous

The glowing emotion glanced down at her bare feet, planted firmly on the carpet beneath her. She had been too preoccupied with placing the puzzle piece to truly notice; she was standing. For the first time since her chaotic run-in with Chips, she had found the strength to walk. And though her battered frame still ached up and down, the pain wasn't nearly as unbearable as it had been the day before. The combined efforts of the positive day and the continued aspirin doses were clearly paying off.

Joy lifted her gaze to her fellow emotions again, who stood around her stunned with their mouths agape. She breathed an airy laugh and flashed a smile. "I... I guess I am..."

The golden creature barely finished her sentence before her knees began to quiver. Healed or not, it had still been so long since her body supported its own weight. Her muscles were weak from the prolonged inactivity. Realizing that her ligaments threatened to give out, Joy awkwardly stumbled back to the mattress, just making it to the foam as her knees finally buckled, and she collapsed onto the bed, hearing a collective gasp from her coworkers.

Joy quickly rolled herself over and began to properly place herself against the pillows. "It's okay... I'm fine... I just-"

As Joy glanced back at the others, she quickly noticed that the gasp she had heard was not triggered by her collapse. In fact, the other four emotions didn't even see the fall happen. They had all been distracted by an agonizing jolt of pain surging through their forms. They grimaced and moaned, completely aware of the cause but unable to stop it as their bodies glowed brighter.

Riley, who had been the only one to witness both the stumble and the rituals beginning, only nodded. "Just in time." She mused, catching a glance of the clock beneath the television.

The young girl slowly turned her attention back to Joy, who looked from her coworkers to her own golden form. As she studied the beady light specs that were her skin, her face once again began to fall. Another recall time had come, yet she showed no signs of producing her yellow pulse. The portal would once more fail to form thanks to her. Despite even having the strength to walk again, the ritual had not resumed within her, and she felt a twinge of hopelessness. She lowered her shoulders and sighed, glimmering particles beginning to drift from her remaining gashes.

Without hesitation, Riley reached out an arm, using her finger to gently lift one of Joy's tiny hands. "It's okay." She smiled, meeting her gleaming blue eyes with her own. "We'll get you making pulses again soon."

Satisfied, Joy lightly squeezed on Riley's finger tip and smiled. She trusted her host with every ounce of her being. If Riley said she'd fix the problem, then Joy knew she had nothing to fear.

Riley could only hope her optimism was well founded.

Finally, much to the relief of the four others, the pain ended in a final burst of color. Green, blue, red, and purple fused, resulting in the bright white pulse they had seen the night before, humming with energy and radiating throughout the house. As it began to fade, the emotions weakly sat themselves on the floor, out of breath and thoroughly exhausted.

Sensing the positive air had stalled, Riley quickly decided it was time for her next 'happy' idea.

"So..." She smiled. "About those donuts..."

*********

Riley dug through the cardboard box she unearthed from the closet, quietly humming a trendy pop song she had heard on the radio. The box was filled with all sorts of belts and buckles, old winter gear, and other random clothes pieces. Finally, at the very bottom, she spied what she was looking for. She pulled the black object from its hiding place before kicking the box back into the closet.

It was her old fanny-pack. Riley would wear the pouch a whole lot when she was younger. Her mom would make her take tiny water bottles to the zoo or little healthy snacks to a friends house. She even had an inhaler she would bring to ice skating just in case of an emergency. But when Riley turned ten, she no longer wanted to associate herself with anything that had 'fanny' in its name. So her mom had bought her a tiny shoulder bag, and the pack became obsolete.

Now, though, the young girl had the perfect use for the thing. Especially handy was the second, smaller pouch just to the right of the main compartment. It was just what she needed.

With a quick adjustment of the cloth strap, she fitted the garment around her waist, the pouch facing forward, and snapped the buckle shut. She exited her bedroom, stopping briefly at the bathroom to stuff the small pocket with tissues, then scrambled back down the stairs to where she had left the emotions to wait.

Riley entered the living room with a proud smile upon her face. "Well?" She grinned, gesturing to the small black bag on her stomach. "What do you think? Perfect, right?"

Disgust's face curled in revulsion. "We still have that?" She groaned. "I thought I banished that from our wardrobe years ago."

"Please, Disgust..." Sadness placed a pudgy blue hand on Disgusts petite, lime green wrist. "Stay calm. It's just for today, remember?" She turned her shimmering cerulean eyes to Riley and nodded. "It should work ok."

Mildly upsetted by Disgusts reaction but still overall pleased with her choice, Riley kneeled down and carefully scooped Joy into her hand, placing her inside the small, tissue filled pocket. The rest of the emotions she gathered and placed in the bigger, main pocket, leaving the tops unzipped so the creatures could peer out.

She stood up tall again. "See?" She smirked. "Now we can ALL go to the corner store. Even Joy."

The emotions nodded in agreement. Even Disgust couldn't argue that it was a perfect fit for all of them, with no one having to strain to see out the top. Joy was even able to recline thanks to the makeshift padding. And if another pedestrian were to pass by, they could quickly and easily duck down and out of sight.

With a new spring in her step, Riley bounded out the front door.

The emotions were immediately greeted with the mid-morning sun, bathing them in it's warm and soothing rays. As Riley continued forward, hurrying to the sidewalk and merrily making her way down the path, a cool breath of fresh air began to rhythmically roll over their faces. Birds in the treetops whistled cheery songs, thanking the world for another day of perfect weather. The five creatures could feel their stress begin to melt away.

Fear, who had ducked down into the fabric when the movement started, slowly raised from hiding. Though his body shivered with trepidation, his eyes glowed with excitement and curiosity, and he raised himself so as to see the wide world around him. Anger studied the lavender emotion just beside him, marveling at the goofy smile that had made its way across his long face. The crimson creature flashed a devilish grin, reaching his thick arms out slowly.

Using more of a sharp shake rather than a shove, Anger gripped Fear's shoulders tight with a loud "DON'T FALL FEAR", causing him to yelp as he felt the terrifying yet false feeling of falling.

"A-Anger!" Fear shouted, his eyes wide and his hands trembling as he turned to face the stout emotion, who was now engaged in a fit of laughter. "Th-that wasn't funny!"

"Speak for yourself." Anger chuckled.

"Aw, leave him alone, Anger." Joy leaned back into her cushioned seat, gazing at the sky above. "Just look at this gorgeous day. I never really got to appreciate the sun when I was being stalked by Chips all the time."

Sadness breathed a slow sigh and nodded. "Yeah. That's one thing I'm really gonna miss when we get back; getting to feel the sun and the wind on our own bodies."

Riley, who was staying on the lookout for any passing cars or pedestrians, shoved her thin hands into her jeans pockets. "I didn't even think about that." She murmured somberly, feeling bad for the little creatures. "Back in your headquarters... Back in my mind, you could never touch or feel anything out here, could you?"

"Well, not exactly." Disgust brushed a hand across her wind swept bangs. "We could pick up some sort of sense from you. It was almost like we could feel through you, if that makes any sense. But it's not like feeling if something is rough or smooth or anything like that. It's... well... really hard to explain."

The golden emotion contentedly closed her eyes. "I always liked when you pet Boss." She smiled. "That made us feel really warm and happy."

Riley smiled as well. "I wish Boss were at my house. Then you guys could actually pet him before..." The girls gaze drifted downward to the black pouch on her waist, and the five emotions returned her stare with their rainbow of colorful eyes. "Before you have to leave." She sighed.

The emotions faces fell almost in unison. None of them had really wanted to admit it, but as the day of their return quickly approached, they were actually beginning to somewhat dread the moment of departure. Though they knew that both they themselves and Riley needed the mental balance restored, they were finding it increasingly difficult to even think of saying goodbye.

"When... When you all leave..." Riley mumbled. "Is there any way you could maybe come visit..?"

None of the colorful creatures could bear to look their host in the eyes. They all knew the answer, but none had the courage to voice it.

"We'll never really leave, Riley." Fear's hands began to nervously twist around each other. "We're all parts of the same puzzle, remember? Even if you can't see us, you'll always know we're there."

Riley, though still saddened by their impending leave, picked her head up slightly. She found comfort in knowing that she would always remember her five special guardians. But in her fanny pack, one of the emotions was still not convinced. Sadness had lowered herself into the fabric, out of sight of the others so as not to upset Joy, and slowly and quietly began to weep. The only thing buzzing in her thoughts was the title of one of the many mind manuals; Emergency Memory Wipe.

But before anyone could take notice of the cerulean creatures absence, a gravely voice brought all their thoughts back into focus.

"We're here!" Anger excitedly yelled, trying to take his own mind and the minds of the others off things they found upsetting.

Riley glanced up. Sure enough, he was right. She hadn't been paying any attention to their location, her body guided purely by muscle memory, yet they had still arrived at the corner store. Her mind moved from the thought of goodbyes to the thought of donuts, and she smiled eagerly.

"Alright, you guys." She whispered, gently pulling the pouches cloth lid more closed. "This store almost always has people in here, especially at this time of day. So I want you all to hide in here and stay quiet."

The emotions nodded and did as they were told, receding into the safety like a turtle into its shell. Sadness quickly blotted her eyes dry with the sleeve of her sweater to not arouse suspicion. Once all five of their faces were out of sight, Riley nonchalantly entered the small building.

The store owner, seated in his usual spot behind the counter, gave an enthusiastic wave as the child entered. "Welcome!" He chirped in an airy, aging voice. "How are you? It's a beautiful day outside, isn't it?"

Riley was somewhat taken aback. The last time she had been here, the older man had been in a significantly more grouchy mood, not even bothering to make eye contact. This greeting was a little more like his normal self, except weirdly exaggerated and forced. Something about it didn't feel quite right. But Riley simply smiled and returned the greeting as per the social norm.

As Riley began to make her way to the snack aisle, she noticed that the store was surprisingly vacant. She was almost never the only customer present in the building, especially at this time and with such good weather. She wondered where everyone could be...

She did manage to find someone, though. As she finally darted into the aisle and away from the prying eyes of the owner, she nearly crashed into a familiar young man dusting the packages on the shelf.

"Cody!" She grinned.

The young man immediately sprang to his feet and smiled. "Riley! What are you doing here?"

"We decided we wanted some sweets." She laughed, carefully lifting the cloth flap of her fanny pack to just barely expose the creatures within. Fear, Anger, and Sadness gave a shy wave, while Disgust and Joy merely stared at the unknown person.

"Wow... So this is all of them?" Cody whispered in awe, reaching a hand to the curious smokey figures. But before he could touch them, he jerked his hand back and shook his head of messy hair. "Wait, Riley! You shouldn't bring them here! It's not safe anymore."

The young girl quizzically tilted her head. "Why not..?"

"You didn't see it?" The stock boy quickly trotted off to the end of the isle, plucking a local newspaper from the bin by the door. As he returned, he pointed a knobby finger to the story just beside the main headline.

Riley gasped as she read the articles title.

"Strange 'Shadow-Bugs' Spotted in Local Neighborhood. Considered Dangerous. City Retaliates."


	42. The Infestation

A cold chill surged down Riley's spine, causing her entire form to break out into uncontrollable shivering. It was as if her body was reacting to the terrifying news independently from her mind. For as her fearful shaking reflected how she should have felt, her still numbed mind produced only a mild sense of worry. It was enough, though, for the young girl to quickly grow concerned for her tiny companions. She glanced down at the pouch around her waist with an uneasy expression, and the five creatures began to rapidly question the contents of the article that sparked this reaction.

Ignoring the emotions prodding for the time being, Riley instead switched her focus back to Cody, and she snatched the local paper out of his hands in a swift movement. She held the document even closer to her own eyes and reread the article's title again and again, as if she hadn't believed the printed ink the first time.

"But... How...?" She mumbled, attempting to read the article but instantly becoming too overwhelmed by her own racing thoughts. "How did they find out about them? I already have them all right here!"

Cody shook his head and sighed. "It was one of our customers." He admitted, rubbing a hand on the back of his strained neck. "Back when the one bug was still living in here. While shopping here she saw the little thing, so she whipped out her cell phone and took a quick video. I guess she posted it on her social media account and it attracted the attention of a local reporter."

With a frustrated growl, Riley quickly fumbled through the pages in search of the articles continuation. "But-... Dangerous?" She grumbled, equal parts confused and irritated.

The stock boy folded his arms across his chest. "Yeah, I don't know what that's about." He mumbled, glancing at the five harmless black critters in the young girl's bag. "I know for a fact that the one here never hurt anyone. I guess they're just assuming based on how... exotic they look."

"And the City Retaliates?" She grunted. "What do they mean by that?"

"Well, the city doesn't want anyone to say they didn't do something about these new bugs." He nodded, closing his heavy eyes. "And since an elections coming up, they wanna make sure they look like they care. So all day there've been exterminators going up and down this block, forcing all businesses to submit to a 'city mandated inspection'. They poked around every nook and cranny, then threw down dozens of traps all over the place. I hear they're even starting to hit up the residential neighborhoods."

From within the black cloth pouch came a tiny yelp in response to this new information.

"Riley!" Fear nervously called out just loud enough for his host to hear, gently tugging on a pinch of fabric from her shirt. "Did you hear that? Exterminators! We don't stand a chance against them!"

The young girl reached down to the fanny pack and gently patted its front, meeting the emotions worried faces with a controlled expression. "Don't worry about it." She whispered. "You guys will be long gone before any exterminators come to our block. Besides, they can't come into a house without permission."

While four of the emotions seemed satisfied and calmed by this answer, the fifth remained unconvinced. He lowered his lavender figure into the pocket and quietly began whimpering to himself.

Cody acknowledged the worrying effect the news had on the young girl and her strange pets with a sympathetic sigh. "Yeah, it's been nothing but trouble for us too. Ever since the news got out, business here has plummeted. Who knew one article in one lousy local paper could do so much damage?" He growled almost to himself, surveying the empty aisles around him. "Now the only people who come in here are looky-loos. Random folks who want to catch their own video of the shadow bug. They try and act super nonchalant about it, but it's always so obvious..."

By this point, Riley had made it to the page containing the bulk of the article and began to skim through the reading. It was pretty much as Cody had said; strange bugs were appearing in yards and in local stores. It even explained where the phone video could be found online.

"Various sightings have been reported, as well as one documented video of the creature that police have confirmed is unedited..." Riley read aloud. She leaned down to her bag, her focus centered on Sadness. "Just how many people saw you?" She asked, mildly frustrated, resulting in a sniffle from the cerulean emotion.

"Really, I don't think many people actually saw her." The stock boy immediately came to the creatures defense. "Once one person reports something like this, suddenly everyone is seeing the curiosity. Most of them probably just saw some run of the mill black bug. Some of em probably didn't even see anything! They just want the attention." He pointed a finger at the paper in Riley's grip. "But keep reading. Look at what they say they plan on doing."

Becoming increasingly nervous, the young girl's eyes immediately flew back to the news article. "Ever vigilant, the city has responded with a team of exterminators to evaluate businesses and residences nearest to the confirmed sighting. Once a specimen has been captured, scientific tests will be used to determine the bugs species and place of origin, as well as the likelihood of its spreading to neighboring cities..."

Riley raised her worried gaze back to the young man before her. "They really want to find these things, Riley." He put his hands on his hips, adopting a somewhat fatherly pose. "Wherever it is you plan on taking the things; are you sure it's safe?"

"Of course!" She retaliated, swiftly folding the paper in her hands. "They'll be in a place where no exterminators can ever find them!"

Cody smiled. "I should've known you'd be on top of things. Keep those little things safe for me, okay?" He slowly reached a hand out to the pouch, picking a bug at random to approach. His hand happened to fall on Joy, and he softly pet her with his index finger, to which she responded with a bubbly giggle.

"Listen, I'm sorry to hit you with such heavy news out of nowhere." Cody stood up straight once more, shaking his head apologetically. "I just wanted to make sure you knew, but it sounds like you've got it under control. What did you say you came here for again?"

Riley, the memory of their happy objective replacing the worrying new article in an instant, smiled brightly. "Oh yeah! We came to grab something sweet!"

"Donuts!" Anger specified with an enthusiastic nod, earning murmurs of agreement from the other four emotions.

The young man laughed at the excited hissing emanating from the girls bag. "Alright! The sweets are right around here!" He lead the girl around the shelf to the next cramped aisle and gestured to the right hand side. "We've got candies, brownies, chocolates... All sorts of good stuff!"

Without a moments hesitation, Riley leapt to the products and plucked a familiar package from the shelf. It was a small pack of tiny donuts, coated in a flurry of white powdered sugar. Though not as delicious as the bakery donuts she usually had, these packaged pastries had always been a weakness of hers.

She held the colorful package over the emotions heads. "This kind, right?" She chirped.

All five colorful creatures approved immediately. What was Riley's favorite was their favorite. And it was even more exciting since they would finally be able to taste the treats upon their own tongues.

Riley happily spin back around to the stock boy. "Yup, this is what we were after!" She smiled.

"Always a good choice." Cody chuckled. "Now get those little things home quickly. And be sure to keep an eye out for the exterminators. With the way their crawling up and down these streets, you'd think they were the bugs."

The young girl stood up tall with a determined glint in her eye. "I'll be sure to keep them safe. Thanks for everything, Cody."

The stock boy smiled. "Good luck, Riley." He nodded. And with that he took his leave, returning to the previous aisle to finish the job he had been assigned.

***************

Riley was far more cautious on the walk home. She watched the streets with eagle eyes, scanning every square inch she could see for signs of the exterminators. But except for one lonely van parked outside a coffee shop, she could find no trace of the threat. It seemed they were focusing more on the business district and less on the residential areas that Riley was traversing. This was good news for the young girl. She wanted to keep as large a distance as she could between the bug poisoning professionals and her tiny, vulnerable friends.

Once it became clear that they were the only ones about, Riley felt comfortable enough to lift the cloth flap of her pouch open once more. The sunlight spilled into the cloth pockets, and the five emotions stretched, revealing their forms from hiding and basking in the warmth. They stood tall so as to feel the fresh air once more gently blowing on their faces. Their upper halfs bobbed in time with Riley's footsteps, the soothing motion beginning to lull the reclining Joy back to sleep.

But one of the creatures was still unable to relax. Unlike the others, Fear stood rigid with wide eyes, breathing in rapid, shallow gasps and rechecking the world around him for any threats his host may have missed.

"R-riley..." He stammered, tightening his death grip on the cloth wall in front of him. "I-I-I'm really worried about... about th-those exterminators. If they catch us... Who knows what they'll do!"

"I'll tell you what they'll do." Anger grunted, folding his thick arms over his blocky chest. "They'll dissect us. You heard the article. If one of us let's themselves get caught, that's it."

"And then we'll never get home." Sadness sighed hopelessly. "We need all five of us to open that portal. If one of us perishes, we'll be stuck here forever."

Disgust put a dainty hand to the light blue emotions shoulder. "Uh, guys?" She shot a stern gaze at her fellow emotions. "You're not helping. We're still trying to fix Joy, remember?"

The young girl, still walking steadily down the path, nodded. "She's right." Riley affirmed. "Dad always says to save your worrying for when you know you'll need it. Besides, the video was filmed at the corner store, which is on a completely different block. The exterminators have no reason to come all the way to our house to search for any 'shadow bugs'."

Fear, still concerned, swallowed hard and began to shiver. "I h-h-hope you're right..."

Just then, a familiar voice startled the travelers, both host and emotions."Hey, Riley!"

Riley, who's eyes had begun to wander while on lookout, whipped her head up to see what it was. Standing just before her on the sidewalk was her neighbor, the aging gardener in his sixties, owner of Chips the cat. He sported a faded navy blue shirt with pictures of owls decorating its surface.

In a panic, the young girl quickly grabbed at the top flap of the fanny pack and yanked it shut again, knocking a few of the emotions back into the dark depths in her haste.

"H-Hey, Mr. O'Dell!" Riley attempted to mask her surprise and concern with a fake smile. "What are you doing out and about?"

"Just going for my daily walk." The older man replied, giving a few swift hits to his sternum. "Gotta work to keep your heart healthy at my age."

The young girl nervously nodded. "And how's Chips been?" She asked.

A more serious expression suddenly appeared on the neighbors face. "Oh, I had to leave Chips inside today." He muttered, putting his knobby hands on his hips. "I read an article in the paper. Turns out that weird black bug he was chasing is some sort of dangerous invasive species, and I want to make sure Chips isn't getting himself hurt.

Riley, mildly concerned that others were buying into the news story, awkwardly stepped around the older man and into the sidewalk square behind him. "Well, I hope he's ok. B-but, you know, I heard..." Riley thought quickly to keep her creatures safe. "I heard that they already rounded up all the little bugs and took care of them. So I don't think you have to worry."

The older man's face immediately flooded with relief. "Oh good!" He laughed, passing the young girl as he slowly resumed his walk around the block.

But as the two drifted further apart as they went their separate ways, Riley was still able to catch the last sentence the older man muttered as he exited earshot.

"But I'm worried those bugs will attack my garden. So I called the city and told 'em the shadow bugs were in our backyards. They'll be sending an exterminator over to evaluate the area some time this week.


	43. Maintaining Control

The young girl stopped dead in her tracks, all her muscles freezing in an instant. She stood stiff as a board in the middle of the sidewalk, listening to the footsteps of the older man behind her begin to fade as he made his way further down the block. His words had hit her like a hard slap in the face, the true level of danger in her current situation becoming all too apparent. The shock left Riley's muted mind reeling.

Concerned as to how her emotional companions had taken the news, Riley turned her gaze down to the pouch on her waist. With the only other person now out of sight, she felt confident in once again lifting the cloth top to reveal the creatures tucked away inside.

Their faces were frozen in stunned horror, wide eyes staring vacantly at their host. Even Joy bore the same terrified expression, her unending optimism unable to overcome the worry that took hold of her. But Riley could only see four of the five creatures returning her gaze. The fifth one, the most nervous of the bunch, was strangely absent.

The young girl lifted an eyebrow in quizzical concern. Anger followed her eyes to the empty space just beside him where Fear had previously been standing. Also becoming confused at his disappearance, Anger ducked further down into the pouch to find his missing coworker.

"Uhhh... Riley..?" His gravely mumbling broke the silence.

Riley reached a hand into the bag just beside Anger's bent over form. Her fingers came in contact with a foreign object, and she scooped it into her hand, bringing it just in front of her face.

Sure enough, it was Fear. He was out cold. The news had been too much for his overworked body to tolerate, and the shear panic knocked him unconscious. He lay limp in the young girls palm, his limbs sprawled out around him, his mouth hanging slightly agape.

Riley sighed and moved the package of sugary treats from her hand to beneath her arm. She brought her newly freed hand over the other, cupping her fingers over top the tiny creature in her hand, sealing him away from the prying eyes of whoever may cross the young girls path. She had decided that trying to rouse the emotion in the middle of her neighborhood would draw unnecessary attention, so she would just keep him safe until they returned to the house and he got a chance to wake up.

The young girl and her four remaining conscious creatures continued the rest of the journey in silence, excepting the occasional grunt from Anger or sniffle from Sadness. They all were simultaneously trying to focus on the new problem at hand and take their minds off it completely, resulting in a chaotic storm of uncontrolled thoughts that helped no one. They no longer appreciated the warmth beaming from the radiant sun in the sky or the gentle caress of the wind as it lazily blew past.

It felt like ages before Riley finally arrived back at the house. She approached the heavy front door, some form of note or advertisement wedged in the handle. But since Riley already had her hands full with the fainted figure, she decided she would grab the mail later, instead of bringing it inside as she usually did.

Back in the safety of her own home, the young girl gently slid Fear's body onto the sofa, surrounding him by three of his emotional coworkers. The fourth, Joy, was returned to her makeshift bed, which was still on the floor next to the semi assembled puzzle.

Sadness sat herself next to the lavender creature, placing a pudgy blue palm onto his shoulder, and began whispering simple statements in an effort to rouse him from his unconscious state. Anger and Disgust hovered nearby, waiting to see if the solemn emotion's words had any effect.

Meanwhile, Riley made a quick trip up the stairs and to her bedroom. She knew she couldn't let the tiny figures dwell on the exterminator problem any longer. As important as it was to be alert in case of impending danger, fretting about it only made the creatures upset, which was detrimental to Joy's health. If she could bring the mood back to a happy one, she was certain she could make the golden emotion well again before the vermin eradicator ever became an issue. So she grabbed a pile of her art supplies, including the bag of tiny crayon spears from before, as well as a small stack of CD's, then returned once more to the living room.

As she returned, she could see that Sadness's strategy was beginning to work. Fear had begun to produce various groaning sounds, his eyelids squeezing shut and his head turning side to side. As he continued to slowly wake, Riley sat on the floor beside Joy and her mattress, carefully moving the puzzle aside and arranging the art supplies.

"What..." Fear eventually moaned, bringing a hand to his head. "What hit me..? Where... where am I..?"

Anger and Disgust sighed in relief, relaxing their tensed bodies. Sadness patted Fear's shoulder a few times.

"We're back at the house." Sadness calmly explained. "You passed out when..."

Suddenly, as if a switch had been thrown, Fear shot upright. The memory of the neighbors statement washed over him like a tidal wave, bringing with it all the terror and stress that had managed to knock him out the first time.

"The exterminators!" He shrieked. "They're coming! We don't stand a chance! We're all doomed!"

"No one is doomed." Riley stated matter-of-factly, continuing to prep an art station. The emotions on the sofa looked at her like she was being naive.

"Think about it, though." Anger grunted and threw his blocky hands in the air. "Everyone but you sees us as bugs! If one of those guys were to come in here, we'd all be exterminated!" Beside him, Fear nodded in terrified agreement.

But Riley didn't even bother to turn around. "Well, good thing they aren't coming in here."

Disgust scoffed, quickly beginning to lose her composure. "Did you even hear what the neighbor said?" She snipped. "He called the city and-"

"They aren't coming here..." Riley interrupted, keeping her voice calm and collected despite the emotions frustrations. "Because they can't come here. No one can come into a persons house without permission. And my cousin would never let any exterminators in here. She likes you." Finishing the arrangement on the floor, the young girl propped herself onto her knees and turned to the creatures on the couch. "Now, please... We were being happy today, remember? Then Joy can get better and you all can go home." She reached out her hands as platforms for the miniature figures. "Come on. I've got more fun things to do, and we can have some of those donuts."

A collective sigh rose from the beings on the sofa. The young girl was right; it was best if they didn't dwell on the problem despite how serious it was. Their top priority was bringing their leader back to full health. Everything else would have to wait.

One by one, Anger, Sadness, and Disgust boarded Riley's hands and were eased from the furniture to the floor. But Fear stayed seated, his hair-like appendage drooping, a tiny shiver rattling his minuscule form.

"Fear, we've known each other the longest..." Riley wore a calming smile. "You know I wont let anything happen to you."

The lavender creature sighed. Though his withdrawal tried to prevent it, he put his trust in her. The girl he had spent his life protecting would now be the one protecting him. Managing a nervous grin, he rose to his feet, climbed into Riley's palm, and was gently brought down to the floor with the others.

"Really? Coloring?" Disgust sneered as she and the others surveyed the set up on the carpet. "We're gonna spend our time coloring? With crayons?"

"Come on, Riley! We're not six anymore!" Anger grouchily added.

Joy jumped in on her hosts behalf. "Now hold on, guys... There's no age limit on coloring!" The golden emotion sat up in her bed, her smile brighter and her voice stronger than it had been in a long time. "I think it could be really fun!"

Fear shared in Joy's excitement, having enjoyed drawing with crayons before and more than happy to do so again. Anger, Disgust, and Sadness, however, didn't look very enthused.

"That's the spirit!" Riley smiled at the golden and lavender emotions. She revealed four hard cover books roughly the size of a piece of paper from her pile of supplies. These would allow the creatures to bear down without tearing the paper. She spread them across the floor, topping each in a clean white sheet of paper. She also revealed a tiny piece of cardboard she had torn from a shoe box, tore a piece of paper to roughly the same size, and handed it to Joy so the injured emotion could draw without having to stand up. Finally, she poured the bag of colorful wax crayon spears onto the floor.

As Fear and Joy began selecting colors to start their masterpieces with, Riley turned to the other three emotions. "Come on, guys." She coaxed. "I'll put on a cd and we can eat our donuts!"

Sadness, intrigued by the promise of donuts and quiet music, shrugged. Slowly, she shuffled over to one of the blank papers, grabbing a spear or two on the way.

One down, Riley thought, two to go.

"What's wrong, Anger?" Riley raised an eyebrow. "Don't you want to color with us?"

The stout crimson emotion scowled. "No, I don't!" He shouted, irritated that his opinion hadn't been noted the first time. His face began to heat as his head and the space around his eyes burned in a brighter hue. "Coloring is for babies!"

Ever the clever one, Riley only smirked. "You know..." She began in a more thoughtful tone. "The way you shoot fire when you're mad... It, well, kind of reminds me of a dragon."

She could almost see his ruby eyes flicker with pride at the statement, and his face very quickly returned to its normal shade and temperature. He just barely tilted his square head, wondering where she was going with this.

"I wonder what you'd look like as a dragon." Riley mused, her cunning grin only growing. "I bet you'd have short little horns, and a big, fiery mane..."

Anger quickly took the bait. "Little?" He scoffed, returning the girls sly grin. "My horns would be giant! And I'd have huge red wings! I'll show you a dragon!" He sprinted over to a piece of paper and began to sketch with the rest of his coworkers.

Last but not least, the young girl turned to Disgust, who batted her emerald eyelashes in anticipation. "And I have a job for you, too." Riley smiled.

Not easily impressed, Disgust moved her lime green hand to her hips. "I'm not drawing myself as some scaly lizard, if that's what you're thinking." She snipped.

"Not even close." The young girl leaned backwards, reaching a hand out and deftly plucking something from the bookcase behind her. Sitting back up straight, she revealed the slightly tattered magazine. "You were looking at this the other day. I bet you'd be great at designing an awesome new outfit for us. You could look at this for ideas. And if you draw it, I can show it to my mom and see if she can order the pieces for us." Riley nodded. "I mean, you do have the best fashion sense."

Disgust chuckled, flipping a lock of hair behind her. "Guilty as charged." She smirked. "I guess I could draw something up. It will be our best look yet!" The green emotion, a new sense of pride in her step, sauntered over to the remaining drawing station.

All five of the stations she had set up were now filled, with all five emotions engaged in their drawing. Their tiny forms were leaned over the papers that dwarfed them in size, standing only occasionally to pass a crayon spear between them. As they watched their ideas flow onto the paper, they couldn't help but smile. Riley had successfully brought the happy mood back from the brink.

But even in the lighter mood, the thought of the exterminator still loomed in Riley's mind. She only hoped she would be able to keep her promise; getting these tiny creatures home safe and sound. It seemed like everything had been against her through this entire journey. And now that the end was so close, they had reached their largest and final hurtle.

With their focus so buried in their work, none of the emotions noticed the flash of light that replaced a large portion of Joy's particles, filling some of her gashes. But Riley noticed. She breathed a steady sigh. If she could keep things progressing at this speed a little longer, she might just be able to finally bring together the shards of her shattered mind.

Somewhere outside, down the block, the piece of paper that had been wedged in the doors handle flew freely through the streets in the summer winds, taking with it the warning that Riley had failed to notice.


End file.
